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Spiritual Scientific Notes on Goethe's Faust, Vol. II
GA 273

30 September 1916, Dornach

1. The Problem of Faust

My dear friends,

Today I should like to link on what I am about to say to the laboratory scene in Goethe's Faust just represented, and to connect it in such a way that it may form a unity, as well as a starting point for more thorough deliberations tomorrow.

We have seen that the transition from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to the sixteenth and seventeenth forms a remarkably significant and suggestive incision into the whole course of human evolution—a transition from the Greco-Latin age to our fifth post-Atlantean epoch in which we are now living, out of which flow the impulses for all our knowledge and all our action, and which will last until the third millennium. Now, from all that you know of Goethe's Faust, and of the connection between this Faust and the figure of Faust originating in the legend of the sixteenth century, you will see that not only this sixteenth century Faust but also what Goethe has made of him is most closely connected with all the transitional impulses introduced by the new age, both from a spiritual and from an external, material point of view.

Now for Goethe the problem of the rise of this new age and the further working of its impulses was something very powerful, and during the sixty years in which he was creating his “Faust” he was wholly inspired by the question: What are the most important tasks and the most important trends of thought of the new man? Goethe could actually look back into the previous age, the age that came to an end with the fourteenth, fifteenth centuries, of which now so little is known even to science. As I have often said, what history tells of man's mood of soul, of his capacities and needs in former centuries, is indeed nothing but colourless theory. In the souls of men in the earlier centuries, even as in the centuries immediately preceding the age of Faust, things looked completely different from how they appear to the soul modern man, to human souls in the present epoch. And in his Faust Goethe has created a figure, a personality, who looks back in the right way on man's mood of soul in former centuries, in centuries long past, while at the same time he looks forward to the tasks of the present and those of the future.

But although at first Faust looks back to an era preceding his own, he can actually only see the ruins of a culture, a spiritual culture that has come to an end. He can look back only on ruins. To begin with we must always keep in mind the Faust of the sixteenth century, the historical Faust who actually lived and then passed into folklore. This Faust still lived in the old sciences that he had made his own, lived in magic, in alchemy, and mysticism, all of which was the wisdom of former centuries, and also the wisdom in particular of pre-Christian times. In the age, however, in which lived the historic Faust of the sixteenth century, this wisdom was definitely on the decline. What was accepted as alchemy, as magic, as mysticism, by those among whom Faust lived, was already in a state of confusion. It all originated in tradition, the legacy of older ages, but it was no longer possible to find one's bearings in it. The wisdom contained there was no longer recognisable. There were,all kinds of sound formulas here from past ages, and much real insight, but these could hardly be understood. Thus the historical Faust was placed into an age of decaying spiritual life. And Goethe constantly mingled the experiences of the historical Faust with those of the Faust he was creating, the Faust of the eighteenth century, of the nineteenth and indeed of many centuries to come. Hence we see Goethe's Faust looking back to the ancient magic, to an older type of wisdom, mysticism, that did not deal with chemistry in the modern, materialistic way, hoping to make contact with a spiritual world through its dealings with nature but no longer having the knowledge enabling it to do so in the way that was right for an earlier age. The art of healing, as it was looked upon in centuries long past, was by no means so foolish as modern science sometimes makes it out to be, but the real wisdom contained in it has been lost. It was already to a great part lost in Faust's time and Goethe knew this well. He knew it not only with his intellect but with his heart, with those soul forces that have specially to do with the well-being, the soundness, of man. He wanted to find an answer to the questions, the problems, arising from it; he wanted to know how a man, continually advancing, could arrive at a different kind of wisdom with regard to the spiritual world, a wisdom adapted to the new age, as the ancients had been able to attain their kind of wisdom which in the natural course of human affairs had now to die out. For this reason he makes his Faust a magician. Faust has given himself up to magic like the Faust of the sixteenth century. But he is still unsatisfied for the simple reason that the real wisdom of the old magic had already faded away. It was from this wisdom that the old art of healing sprang; all dispensing, the whole science of medicine, was connected with the ancient chemistry, with alchemy.

Now in touching on such a question we come at the same time to one of the deepest secrets of humanity—these secrets going to show that no one can heal diseases without also being able to produce them. The ways leading to the healing of disease are the same as those leading to its production. We shall shortly hear how completely in the ancient wisdom the principle prevailed that he who healed diseases was likewise able to produce them. Thus, in olden days, the art of healing was associated in men's s minds with a profoundly moral conception of the world. And we shall also shortly see how little what is called the new freedom in human evolution would have been able to develop in those days. Actually this freedom was not taken hold of until this fifth epoch of ours, the epoch following the Greco-Roman. We shall see what it would have been like if the ancient wisdom had persisted. But in every sphere this wisdom had to disappear so that man might make, as it were, a fresh start, striving towards freedom in both knowledge and action. This he could not have done under the influence of the old wisdom. In such times of transition as those in which Faust lived the old is passing away, the new has not yet come. Then arise such moods as may be seen in Faust in the scene preceding the one produced today. Here we see clearly that Faust both is and feels himself to be a product of the new age, in which the ancient wisdom still existed though it was no longer fully understood. We see how Faust accompanied by his famulus, Wagner, goes out from his cell into the green world where, to begin with, he watches the country people celebrating the Easter Festival out-of-doors in the meadows, until he himself is affected by the Easter mood. We see at once, however, that he refuses the people's homage. An old peasant comes forward to express this homage, for the folk think that Faust, as son of a former adept in the art of healing, must be distinguished in the same way, and be able to bring them health and blessing:

“Nay, of a truth, it is but meet
Our joyful day should see you here.
You proved a very friend in need,
In evil days when death was near.
And many a man stands here alive
Whom your good father, wrestling yet,
Snatched from the fever's burning rage,
When for the Plague a bound he set.
And you yourself, a young men then,
In every stricken house were found,
And corpse on corpse was carried forth,
But you came out, aye, safe and sound.
Steadfast in trials did you prove;
Helped was the helper from above.”

Thus speaks the old peasant, remembering Faust's connection with the ancient art of healing, not only the healing of physical diseases in the people but also the healing of their moral evil. Faust knows that he no longer lives in an age when the ancient wisdom could be really helpful to humanity, for it is already in decline. Humility begins to glimmer in his soul, and at the same time despondency over the falsity he is opposing. He says:

“Yet a few paces onward, up to yonder stone;
Here a brief while we'll rest us from our straying.
Here have I often sat and mused alone,
And racked myself with fasting and with praying.
For rich in hope and staunch in faith,
With tears and sighs and frenzied wringing
Of aching hands, to stay the Death
I thought, Heaven's Lord to mercy bringing.
And now the crowd's applause rings in my ears like scorn!
O could'st thou read what in my heart is hidden.
Father and son, no more than babe unborn,
Merit the fame that seeks them thus unbidden.
My father was a worthy gentleman,
To fame unknown, who sought with honest passion,
Yet whimsical device, as was his fashion,
Nature and all her holy rounds to scan;
In the Black's Kitchen's murky region,
Cloistered with masters of the craft.
He, guided by prescriptions legion,
Concocted nauseous draught on draught.
There a red lion with lily wedded,
A wooer bold within the tepid bath,
From bridal bower to bridal bower was speeded,
Racked by the naked fire's flaming wrath.”

After the manner of those days Goethe had thoroughly studied how the “red lion” (mercury-oxide, sulphurated mercury) used to be dealt with, how the different chemicals had been combined, what the results of these processes were, and how medicines had been manufactured from them. But all that no longer represented the ancient wisdom. Goethe also knew their mode of expression; what was to be shown was put into pictures; the fusion of substances was represented as a marriage. Hence he says:

“From bridal bower to bridal bower speeded,
And, thereupon, in gorgeous hues attired,
Shone the young Queen within the glassy cell.”

This was a technical expression; just as modern chemistry has its technical terms so in those days, when certain substances had reached a definite condition and colour, the result was called the young Queen.

“Here was the medicine, but the patients died”; they died in the days of Faust as they still die today in spite of many medicines.

“Here was the medicine but the patients died.
None asked the question: Who got well?
Thus have we wrought among these hills and valleys,
With hellish lecturaries, worse havoc than the malice
Of that same desolating pest.
Myself to thousands have the poison given;
They pined away—and yet my fame has thriven,
Till I must hear their shameless murderers blessed.”

This is Faust's sell-knowledge. This is how ho sees himself, he of whom you know that he has studied the ancient magic wisdom in order to penetrate into the secrets of nature. And through all that he has become spiritualised. Faust cannot remain satisfied like Wagner his famulus. Wagner contents himself with the new wisdom, relying on manuscripts, on the written word. This Wagner is a man who makes far fewer claims on wisdom and on life. And while Faust tries to dream himself into nature in order to reach her spirit, Wagner thinks only of the spirit that comes to him from theories, from parchments, from books, and calls the mood that has come over Faust a passing whimsy:

“I too have had my whimsies and my fancies,” (says Wagner)
“But no such freaks as that by any chances.
On woods and fields I soon have looked my fill.
I never shall begrudge the bird his pinion.”

He never wants to fly out on the wings of a bird to gain knowledge of the world!

“How elsewise flit we through the mind's dominion
From book to book, from leaf to leaf at will?”
Such snug delights the wintry eve console;
A blissful warmth in every limb comes o'er you;
Some venerable parchment then if you unroll
Ah, then, all heaven opens out before you!”

A thorough bookworm, a theory-monger! And so the two stand there after the country folk have gone—Faust, who wishes to penetrate to the sources of life, to unite his own being with the hidden forces of nature in order to experience them, and the other, who sees nothing but the external, material life, and just what is recorded in books by material means. It does not need much reflection to see what has taken place in Faust's inner being as the result of all the experiences which, as described by Goethe, he has passed through up to this moment. When we consider all that we meet with in Faust, we can be sure of this, however, that his inner being has been completely revolutionised, a real soul-development has taken place in him and he has acquired a certain spiritual vision. Otherwise he would not have been able to call up the Earth-spirit who storms hither and thither in the tumult of action. Faust has made his own a certain capacity not only to look at the external phenomena of the outside world, but to see the spirit living and weaving in all things. Then from the distance a poodle comes leaping towards Faust and Wagner. The way the two see the poodle—an ordinary poodle—the way Faust sees and the way Wagner sees it, absolutely characterises the two men, After Faust has dreamed himself into the living and weaving of the spirit in nature, he notices the poodle:

“Dost thou see yon black dog ranging through shoot and stubble?”

Wagner: “I saw him long ago; he struck me not in the least,”

Faust: “Look at him narrowly. What mak'st thou of the beast?”

Wagner: “A poodle who like any other poodle breathing
casts for the scent strayed from his master's heels.”

(The poodle goes circling round them.)

Faust: “Mark how, a mighty spiral round us wreathing,
Nearer and ever nearer yet he steals,
And see! unless mine eyes deceive me queerly,
He trails a fiery eddy in his train.”

Not only does Faust see the poodle but something stirs within him; he sees something that belongs to the poodle appearing as if spiritual. This Faust sees. It goes without saying that Wagner cannot de so; what Faust sees cannot be seen by the external eye.

Wagner: “I see a poodle, a black poodle only.
’Tis but some sport, some phantom of your brain.”

Faust: “Meseemth he softly coileth magic meshes
To be a future fetter round our feet”

Wagner: “He frisks in doubt and fear around us, lest ungracious
The strangers' welcome be. He thought his lord to greet.”

In this simple phenomenon Faust sees also something spiritual.Let us keep this firmly in mind. Inwardly struck by a certain spiritual connection between himself and the poodle, he now goes into his Laboratory. Naturally the poodle is there dramatically represented by Goethe as a poodle, and so it must be; but fundamentally we are concerned with what is being inwardly experienced by Faust. And in Goethe's every word he shows us in a most masterly fashion how in this scene Faust is passing through an inner experience. He and Wagner have stayed out of doors till late in the evening, till outwardly the light has gone, the dusk has fallen. And into the twilight Faust has projected the picture of what he spiritually wishes to see. He now returns home to his cell and is alone. When alone, such a man as Faust, having been through all this, is in a position to experience self-knowledge, that is, the life of the spirit in his own ego. He speaks as though his inmost soul were stirred, but stirred in a spiritual way:

“Now field and mead have I forsaken,
Which night enshroudeth, deep and still,
In us the better soul doth waken,
with a presaging, holy thrill.
Now stress of deed and storm of yearning
Sleep, at her all-compelling nod;
The love of man now bright is burning,
and burning bright the love of God.”

The poodle growls. But let us be quite clear that those are spiritual experiences; even the growling of the poodle is a spiritual experience, although dramatically it is represented as external. Faust has associated himself with decadent magic; he has associated himself with Mephistopheles, and Mephistopheles is not a spirit who can lead him to progressive spiritual forces. Mephistopheles is the spirit whom Faust has to overcome, and he is associated with him just in order that he may overcome him, having been given him not for instruction but as a test. That is to say, we now see Faust standing between the divine, spiritual world that bears forward the evolution of the universe, on the one hand, and on the other the forces stirring in his soul which drag him down into the life of the ordinary instincts, and these divert a man from spiritual endeavor. Directly anything holy stirs in his soul, it is ridiculed, the opposing impulses ridicule it. This is wonderfully presented now in the form of external events—Faust striving with all his knowledge towards the divine spiritual, and his instincts growling, as the materialist's mind growls, at spiritual endeavor. When Faust says: “Be quiet poodle,” he is really saying this to himself. And now Faust speaks—or rather, Goethe makes Faust speak—in a wonderful way. It is only when we study it word by word that we realise how wonderfully Goethe knows the inner life of man in spiritual evolution:

“When in our narrow chamber kindled
The lamp its cheerful radiance throws,
Bright gleams the light that erst had dwindled
Within the heart itself that knows.”

This is self-knowledge; seeking the spirit within itself.

“Reason again begins to speak”

A significant line, for whoever goes through the spiritual development Faust passes through during his life, knows that reason is not merely something dead within man, not only the reasoning of the head, but he realises how reason can become living—the weaving of an inner spirit that actually speaks. That is no mere poetical image:

“Reason again begins to parley
And hope to bloom that seemed dead.”

Reason again begins to speak of the past, of what is left alive out of the past. “Hope, blooms again that seemed dead,” that means that we find our will transformed, so that we know that we shall pass through the gates of death as spiritually living beings. Future and past are dove-tailed together in a wonderful way. Goethe now makes Faust say that through self-knowledge he can find the inner life of the spirit.

“Then for life's fountains long we dearly,
Ah, dearly, for life's fountain-head.”

And now Faust seeks to come nearer that towards which he is being pressed—nearer life's fountain-head. To begin with he seeks the path of religious exaltation; he picks up the New Testament. And the way in which he does so is a wonderful example of the wisdom in Goethe's drama. He picks out what contains the deepest wisdom of the new age—the John Gospel. He wants to translate this into his beloved German; and it is significant that Goethe should have chosen this particular moment. Those who know the workings of the deeply cosmic and spiritual beings realise that when wisdom is being put from one language into another, all the spirits of confusion make their appearance, all the bewildering spirits intervene. It is especially in the frontier regions of life that the powers opposed to human evolution and human well-being find expression. Goethe purposely chooses translation, to set the spirit of perversity, the spirit of lying (still inside the poodle) over against the spirits of truth. If we look closely at the feelings and emotions to which such a scene may give rise, the wonderful spiritual depths concealed in it become evident. All the temptations I have characterised as coming from what is inherent in the poodle, the temptation to distort truth by untruth, these go on working, and now they influence an action of Faust's which gives ample opportunity for such distortion, Yet, how little it has been noticed that this is what Goethe meant is still today made evident by the various interpreters of “Faust”; for what do these interpreters actually say about this scene? Well, you can read it; they say: “Goethe is indeed a man of external life, for whom the Word is not enough; he has to improve upon John's Gospel; he has to find a better translation—not: In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, but: In the beginning was the deed. That is what Faust after long hesitation decides on. This is a piece of Goethe's deep wisdom!” But this wisdom is not Faust wisdom, it is pure Wagner wisdom, genuine Wagner wisdom! Just like that wisdom quoted over and over again when, later, Faust speaks such beautiful words to Gretchen about the religious life:

“Who, then, can name Him? who thus proclaim Him? ...
The All-embracing, the All-sustaining ...”

And so on. What Faust says to Gretchen then is quoted repeatedly and represented as deep wisdom by the learned gentlemen who quote it:

“Who can name Him?
Who thus proclaim Him:
I believe Him?
Who hath that feeling,
His bosom steeling,
Can say: I believe Him not?
The All-embracing,
The All-sustaining,
Clasps and sustains He not
Thee, me, Himself?
Springs not the vault of Heaven above us?
Lieth not Earth firm—’stablished ’neath our feet?
And with a cheerful twinkling
Climb not eternal stars the sky?
Eye into eye gaze I not upon thee?
And floats in endless mystery
Invisible visible around thee? ...

These words of Faust's are often represented as deep wisdom! Now if Goethe had meant it to be accepted as such deep wisdom, he would not have put the speech into the mouth of Faust when he was trying to instruct the sixteen-year-old Gretchen. It is Gretchen-wisdom! We must take things seriously. The pundits are under a misapprehension and have mistaken this Gretchen-wisdom for deep philosophy. Faust's suggestion for the translation of the Bible is also taken for especially profound wisdom, whereas Goethe simply means to represent how men bandy about truth and error when they undertake much a task. Goethe has represented the two souls of Faust very profoundly indeed, here in this scene of the translation of the Bible.

“It is written: In the beginning was the Word.” We know that this is the Greek Logos. That actually stands in the John Gospel. In opposition to it there rises up in Faust what is symbolised by the poodle and it is this that prevents him from reaching the inner meaning of the Gospel. Why does the writer of the John Gospel choose precisely the Word, the Logos? It is because he wishes to emphasise that the most important thing in the evolution of man on earth, what really makes him externally man in this Earth-evolution, has not evolved gradually but was there in the primal beginning. What is it that distinguishes man from all other beings? The fact that he can speak, whereas no other being, animal, vegetable or mineral, can do so. The materialist thinks that the Word, Speech, the Logos, through which thought vibrates, was required by man only after he had passed through animal evolution. The Gospel of John takes the matter more deeply and says: No, in the primal beginning was the Word. That is to say, man's evolution was planned from the beginning; he is not in the materialistic Darwinian sense, simply the highest peak of the animal world; in the very first design of Earth-evolution, in its primal origin, in the beginning, was the Word. And man can develop on Earth a ego, to which animals do not attain, only by reason of the Word being interwoven with human evolution. The Word stands for the Ego in man. But against this truth the spirit of falsehood which has entered Faust rebels; he must go deeper to understand the profound wisdom of John's words,

“Already I am held up!”

But actually it is the poodle, the dog in him and what dwells in the dog, that is holding him up. He can get no higher; on the contrary he sinks much lower.

“Already I stick, and who shall help afford?
The Word at such high rate I may not tender;
The passage must I elsewise render,
If rightly by the Spirit I am taught.”

Seeing Mephistopheles coming to him he thinks that he is being “enlightened by the Spirit,” whereas in reality he is beclouded by the Spirit of darkness, and sinking lower.

“ ’Tis written: In the beginning was the Thought.” What is not higher than the Word. Sense, as we can easily prove, plays its part in the life of animals also, but the animal does not attain to the human Word. Man is capable of sense, thinking, because he has an astral body. Faust descends from the Ego to the astral body more deeply into himself.

“... In the beginning was the Thought. (Sinn)
By the first line a moment tarry,
Let not thine eager pen itself o'er hurry!”

He thinks he is rising higher but he is sinking lower.

“Does Thought work all, and fashion all outright?”

No, he is descending lower still, from the astral body to the dense, more material etheric body; and he writes:

“... In the beginning was the Force.”

(Force is what dwells in the etheric body.)

“Yet even as my pen the sentence traces,
A warning hint the half-writ word effaces.
The spirit helps me!”

(The spirit dwelling in the poodle. )

“From all-doubting freed,
Thus write I: In the beginning was the Deed.”

And now he has arrived at complete materialism; now he has reached the physical body through which the external deed is performed.

(Logos) Word.........Ego
Thought..................Astral Body
Force......................Etheric Body
Deed.......................Physical Body

Thus you have Faust living and weaving in self-knowledge. He translates the Bible wrongly because the several members of man's being of which we have so often spoken—the ego, the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body are working together in him, through Mephistopheles' spirit, in a chaotic way. And now we see how these impulses prevail, for the external barking of the dog is what stirs him up against the truth. In all his knowledge he cannot yet recognise the wisdom of Christianity. This is shown the way he connects Word, Thought, Force, Deed. But the impulse, the urge, towards Christianity is already alive in him, and by making use of the living force of what dwells there as the Christ, he overcomes the opposing spirit. He first tries to do this with what he has received from ancient magic. But the spirit does not yield, does not show himself in his true form. He then calls up the four elements and their spirits—the salamanders, sylphs, undines and gnomes, but nothing of all this affects the spirit in the poodle. But when he calls upon the figure of Christ, “the shamefully Immolated, by Whom all heaven is permeated” then the poodle has to show its true shape.

All this is fundamentally self-knowledge, a self-knowledge that Goethe makes quite clear. And what appears now? A travelling scholar! Faust is genuinely practising self-knowledge, he stands actually facing himself. Now for the first time the wild impulses in poodle-form, which have been resisting the truth, are working, and now he sees himself with a clearness that is still not clear! The travelling student stands before him but this is only Faust's other self, for he has not become much more than a travelling student with all a student's errors. Only now that he has learnt through his bond with the spiritual world to recognise the impulses more accurately,the travelling scholar—his own ego as up to now, he has developed it—confronts him as something more definite and solid. Faust has learnt like a scholar; he has given himself up to magic and through magic scholastic wisdom has been bedevilled. What has developed out of the old, good Faust, the old travelling student, is merely the result of his having added ancient magic to his learning. The travelling scholar is still present in him and meets him under a changed form; it is only his other self. This travelling student is himself. The struggle to be free of all that confronts him as his other self, is shown in the ensuing scene.

Indeed, in the different characters whom Faust meets, Goethe is always trying to show Faust's other ego, so that he may come to know himself better and better. Many of the audience may remember how in earlier lectures I explained that even Wagner was to be found in Faust himself, that Wagner was just another ego of Faust's. Mephistopheles, also, is only another ego. It is all self-knowledge; self-knowledge is practised for knowledge of the universe. But, for Faust, none of this is yet clear spiritual knowledge; it is all wrapt in a vague, dull spirit seership, impaired by the old, atavistic clairvoyance. There is nothing clear about it. It is not knowledge full of light, but the knowledge of dreams. This is represented by the dream-spirits fluttering around Faust—really the group-souls of all the beings that accompany Mephistopheles—and represented also by his final waking. Then Goethe says, or makes Faust say, clearly and unmistakably:

“What! am I once again then cheated?
And vanishes the spirit-foison thus?
That but a dream the devil counterfeited,
A poodle from my room broke loose?”

Goethe employs the method of directing attention over and over again to the truth. That he is representing a spiritual experience in Faust, is clearly enough expressed in the above four lines. This scene shows us too how Goethe was striving for knowledge of the transition from the old era to the new in which he himself lived, that is, from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch to the fifth. The boundary line is in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth centuries. As I have said before, whoever thinks as men think today can hardly picture—unless he makes a special study of it—the soul-development of past centuries. In the days of Faust only the ruins of it remained. How often we experience today that men are not trying to come to the new spiritual research for which we are striving; they are trying to renew the old wisdom. Many indeed think that by renewing what was possessed by the people of old they will be able to find a deeper, magical and mystical wisdom about nature. There are two errors closely connected with all human spiritual striving. The first is that men buy ancient books and studying them come to prize them more highly than the newer science. They generally prize them more highly simply because they do not understand them, the language in which they are written being actually no longer comprehensible. Thus, the content of old books that has become double-Dutch being often put forward when spiritual research is under discussion is the one mischievous thing. The other is that whenever possible old names are given to new endeavours in order to justify them. Look at many of the societies calling themselves occult, or secret, or something of the kind; their whole endeavour is to give themselves an early origin, to talk as much as possible about a legendary past, and they delight in the use of old names. That is the second mischievous error. We do not have to do all this if we really see into the needs and impulses of our own age and of the inevitable future. If we pick up any book where traditions still existed, we can see from the way they were presented that, through the legacy of the past, the memory of an ancient wisdom formerly possessed by man, was still there, this wisdom had fallen into decay. Its modes of expression, however, continued for a considerable time.

I have at my disposal a book printed in the year 1740, that is, in the eighteenth century, from which I should like to read you a short passage, and we may be sure that many seeking spiritual knowledge today, coming upon such a passage will say: What depths of wisdom we have here! Indeed, there are many who believe they understand a quotation of this kind. Let me read you the one I am referring to:

“The King's crown should be of pure gold, and he must be married to a chaste bride. Now, if thou desirest to work upon our bodies, take the Greedy Grey Wolf who, according to his name, is subject to the warlike Mars but by birth is a child of ancient Saturn, and found in the hills and dales of the world, obsessed by hunger. Throw him the body of the King that he may feed upon it.”

This is the way chemical processes were described in olden days, the way to which Faust alludes when he talks of how Red Lion is married to the Lily in the glass. We should not make fun of such things for the simple reason that the way we speak of chemistry today will sound to those who come later just as this sounds to us. But we must be quite clear that this particular passage belongs to a late period of decline. Allusion is made to a “Grey Wolf.” Now this “Grey Wolf” stands for a certain metal found everywhere in the mountains, that is then subjected to a certain process. “King” is a name given to a condition of substances; and the whole paragraph describes a chemical process. The grey metal was collected and treated in a certain way; then this was called the “Greedy Grey Wolf”, and the other the “Golden King”, after the gold had gone through a process. Then an alliance was made and this is described: “And when he had devoured the King. ...” It comes about, therefore, that the Greedy Grey Wolf, the grey metal found in the mountains, is amalgamated with the Golden King, a certain condition of gold after it has been treated chemically. He represents it as follows:

“And when he has devoured the King, then make a great fire and throw the Wolf into it.”

—thus the Wolf who has eaten up the Golden King is thrown into the fire.

“So that he may be completely burnt up and the King released again.”

The gold once more makes its appearance.

“When that has happened three times the Lion will have overcome the Wolf, and will find nothing more of him to consume. Then our body is ready to begin our work.”

In this way then he makes something. To explain what he makes, we should have to describe these processes in greater detail, especially how the Golden King is made; but that is not told us here. Today these processes are no longer used. But for what does the man hope? He hopes for what is not entirely without reason for he has already made something. For what purpose exactly has he made it? The man who had this printed will certainly not have done anything more than copy it from some old book. But for what purpose was it done at the time when such things were understood? That you may gather from the following:

“And know that this alone is the right way thoroughly to purify our bodies; for the Lion cleanses itself by the blood of the Wolf; for the tincture of this blood delights marvelously in the tincture of the Lion's, for the two kinds of blood are closely allied.”

Thus he praises what he has been the cause of producing. He has invented a kind of medicine.

“And when the Lion is satiated, its spirit becomes stronger than before, and its eyes dart forth a gleam of pride, bright as the sun.”

(This describes the properties of what he has in the retort.)

“Its inner being is then able to do much, and is useful for all that is demanded of it. When it is made ready, children of men attacked by severe sickness and many diseases are grateful to it; the lepers run after it, hankering after its soul's blood, end all who have infirmities rejoice heartily in its spirit; for he who drinks of this golden spring, experiences a complete renewal of his nature, the removal of evil, strength in the blood, force in the heart and perfect health in all the limbs.”

This, you see, indicates that we are concerned with a medicine, but it is also sufficiently indicated that this also has to do with man's moral character. For naturally if a healthy man takes it in the right quantity then what is here described will make its appearance. This is what he means, and this is how it was with the men of olden days who understood something of these matters.

“For he who drinks of this golden spring, experiences a complete renewal of his nature”

Thus, by means of the art he describes here, he strives to discover a tincture that can arouse an actual stirring of life in man.

“Thanks to the strength of the heart's blood, and the perfect healthiness of all the limbs, they are either enclosed within or sensitive outside the body, for it opens all the nerves end pores so that evil can be driven out and good can peacefully take its place.”

I have read this aloud chiefly to show how in these ruins of an ancient wisdom one may find the remains of what was striven for olden times. By external means taken from nature men strove to stimulate the body, that is, to acquire certain faculties, not only through inner moral endeavour, but through the medium of nature herself, applied by man. Keep this in mind for a moment, for from it we shall be led to something of importance which distinguishes our epoch from earlier epochs. Today it is quite the thing to make fan of the ancient superstitions, for then one is accepted in the world as a clever man, whereas this does not happen should one see any sense in the old knowledge. And all this is lost, and had to be lost, for reasons affecting mankind; for spirit-freedom could never have been attained through what was thus striven for in ancient days. Now you know that in books of an even earlier date than this antiquated volume—that indeed belongs to a very late period of decline—you find Sun and Gold indicated by the same sign ⊙; and Moon and Silver by the sign ☾. To the modern man the application of the one sign used for Sun and Gold, and the other used for Moon and Silver, two faculties of the soul he necessarily has himself, is naturally sheer nonsense. And it is sheer nonsense as we find it in the literature that often calls itself “esoteric”. For the most part the writers of such books have no means of knowing why in the olden days Sun and Gold, Moon and Silver, were characterized by the same signs.

Let us start from Moon and Silver with the sign ☾. Now if we go further back in time, say a few thousand years before the Mystery of Golgotha, before the Christian reckoning of time, men did not only possess the faculties later in ruins; at the time when such things came into existence they possessed still higher faculties. When a man of the Egypto-Chaldean culture said ‘Silver’ he did not mean only what we mean when we say ‘Silver’. In the language of that time, the word signifying a ‘Silver’ was quite differently applied. Such a man had the spiritual faculties, and he meant a certain kind of force-activity found, not only in a piece of silver that actually spread over the whole earth. What he wished to say was: We live in Gold, we live in Copper, we live in Silver. He meant certain kinds of living forces were there, and these flowed towards him especially strongly from the Moon. This he felt that something sensitive and delicate that was in its coarsest, most material form in the piece of silver. He really found these forces flowing from the Moon, but also spread out over the whole earth, materialized in a particular way in the piece of silver. Now, the enlightened man of today says: Yes, of course, the Moon shines with a silvery light so they believe that it consisted of silver. It was not so, however, but rather men had an aerosol experience, lost today, in connection with the Moon, in connection with something dwelling as a force in the whole terrestrial globe, and materialized in the piece of silver.

Thus, the force lying in the silver has to be spread out over the whole earth. Naturally when this is said today it is regarded as absolute nonsense, yet, even from the point of view of modern Science it is not so. It is not nonsense at all, quite the contrary. For I will tell you something that science knows today although it is not often mentioned it. Modern Science knows that rather more than four lbs of silver, finally distributed, is contained in a cubic body the length of an English knot that you may imagine out of the ocean. So that, in all the seas surrounding the earth, there are two million tons of finally distributed silver. This is simply a scientific truth that can be proved today. The oceans of the world contain two million tons of finely distributed silver—distributed in an extreme homeopathic degree, one might say. Silver is actually spread over the whole earth. Today this must be substantiated—if one does so in the way of ordinary Science, by taking water from the sea and testing it by the most exact methods of investigation; then, with the means of modern Science itself it is found that there are two million tons of silver contained in the oceans. It is not that these tons of silver have been somehow dissolved in the ocean, or anything of that kind; they belong to it, belong to its nature and being. And this was known to the ancient wisdom through those delicate, sensitive forces originating in the old clairvoyance, at that time still in existence. The old wisdom also knew that the earth should not be looked upon merely in the way of modern Geology, but that in this earth, most finally dissolved, we have silver.

I could go further; I could show how gold is also dissolved, how, besides being materially deposited here and there, all these metals finely dissolved are really present. Ancient wisdom, therefore, was under no misapprehension when it spoke of silver; it is contained in the sphere of the earth. It was known, however, as a force, a certain kind of force. The silver sphere contains certain forces, the gold sphere other forces, and so on. More still was known of the silver that was dispersed throughout the earth-sphere; it was known that in the silver lies the force controlling the ebb and flow of the tides, for a certain force animating the whole body of the earth lies within this silver and is relatively identical with it. Without it there would be no tides; this movement, peculiar to the earth, was originally set in motion by the silver-content. It has no connection with the Moon, but the Moon is connected with the same force, and hence ebb and flow appear in certain relation with the movements of the Moon, because both they and the tides are dependent on the same system of forces. And these lie in the silver-content of the universe.

Even without clairvoyant knowledge we are able to see into such things, and to prove with a certainty unattainable in any other sphere of knowledge, unless it be Mathematics, that there used to be an old science knowing these things and knowing them well. With this knowledge and what it could do the ancient wisdom was connected, the wisdom that actually controlled nature has to be regained only through spiritual research, as it is today and as it goes on into the future. We live in the age in which an ancient kind of wisdom has been lost and a new kind only beginning to appear. What arose out of this ancient wisdom? Those consequences I have already indicated. If we knew the secrets of the universe we could make man himself more efficient. Think of it! By external means we could make man more efficient. It was possible simply by concocting certain substances and taking them in appropriate quantities, to acquire faculties which today we rightly assume to be innate in a man, such as genius, talent, and so forth. What Darwinism fantastically dreamed was not there at the beginning of earth-evolution, but the capacity to control nature existed, and from that to give man himself moral and spiritual faculties. You will now see that, for this reason, man had to keep the handling of nature within limits; hence the secrecy of the ancient Mysteries. The knowledge connected with these Mysteries, the secrets of nature, did not consist merely of concepts, ideas and feelings, nor merely of dogmatic imaginations. Whoever wished to acquire it had first to show himself wholly fitted to receive it; he had to be free from any wish to employ the knowledge selfishly, he was to use both knowledge and the ability derived from it solely in the service of the social order. This was the reason why the knowledge was kept so secret in the Egyptian Mysteries. In preparation for such knowledge, the one to whom it was to be imparted gave a guarantee that he would continue to live exactly as he had lived before, not taking to himself the smallest advantage but devoting the efficiency he would acquire, by his mastery over nature, exclusively to the service of the social order. On this assumption initiation was granted to individuals who then guided the ancient culture, of which the wonderful works are still to be seen, though, because men do not know their source, they are not understood.

But in this way men would never have become free. They would, through their nature-influences, have been made into a kind of automata. An epoch had to supervene in which man would work through inner moral forces alone. Thus, nature becomes veiled for him because in the new age, his impulses, his instincts, having become free, he has desecrated her. It is at most since the fourteenth, fifteenth, centuries that his impulses have been thus freed. Hence the ancient wisdom is growing dim; there is nothing left but the book-wisdom and that is not understood. For no one who really understood such things as the passage I have just read you would refrain from using them for his own advantage. That, however, would call forth the worst instincts in human society, worse instincts than those produced by the tentative progress of what today is said to be scientific, where, without insight into the matter, it is in a laboratory, without being able to see deeply into things, they obtain some result or other, perhaps that one substance affects another in a certain way—well, just what goes on today in chemistry. They go on trying this and find that but it is spiritual science that will have to find a way back into the secrets of nature. At the same time it must found a social order quite different from that of today, for men to be able, without being led away into a struggle with the most unruly instincts, to realize what nature conceals and her inmost depths.

There is meaning and there is wisdom in human evolution; I have tried to show you this in a whole series of lectures. What happens in history happens—although often by means of most destructive forces—in such a way that meaning runs right through historical evolution. It is often not the meaning man imagines and he has to suffer much on the paths history takes to its ends. Everything that happens in the course of time is sure to make the pendulum sometimes swing towards evil, sometimes towards the lesser evil; but by this swinging a certain condition of balance is reached. So then, up to the fourteenth, fifteenth centuries, a certain number of the forces of nature were known at least to a few; but this knowledge is now lost because the men of the newer age have not been attuned to it.

You see how beautifully it is pictured in the symbol standing for the forces of nature in the Egyptian legend of Isis. This image of Isis—what a deep impression it makes upon us when we picture it standing there in stone, but covered from head to foot with a veil, also of stone—the veiled Isis of Sais. It bears the inscription: “I am the Past, the Present in the Future; my veil no mortal man has yet lifted”. That has given rise to an unusually clever explanation—and a very clever people have accepted this clever explanation. We are told that the image of Isis is the symbol of a wisdom that can never be attained by man. Behind this veil is a being must remain eternally hidden, for the veil can never be lifted. Yet the inscription is “I am the Past, the Present and the Future; my veil no mortal man has yet lifted”. All the clever people then say: no one can fathom this being—are speaking about as logically as anyone who was to say: “I am John Miller you shall never know my name”. To say this is on a par with what you thus always hear said about the figure of Isis. To interpret the inscription: “I am the Past, the Present in the Future; my veil no mortal man has yet lifted” in this way, is as complete nonsense as to say: “I am John Miller, you will never know my name”. For what Isis is, stands written—Past, Present and Future; Time in its flight. Something quite different, therefore, from the clever explanation referred to is expressed in the words: “By veil no mortal man has yet lifted”. It means that this wisdom must be approached as those women are approached who have taken the veil, the vow of chastity; it must be approached with the same reverence, with a feeling that excludes all egoistic impulses. This is what is meant. It is like a veiled nun, this wisdom of ancient days. This is the feeling behind what is said about the veil.

Thus we see that in the days when the primal wisdom was a living thing, then either approached it in the proper way or had no access to it at all. But in the newer age men had to be left to themselves. They could no longer have this wisdom of old days, nor the forms of that wisdom. The knowledge of certain forces of nature was lost, those forces only to be known if experienced within—if they were at the same time lived inwardly. And at the time when materialism was at its height in the nineteenth century, at the beginning of the century, a force of nature appeared, the characteristic of which is recently expressed as follows: We have this nature-force but no one can understand it; it is even a secret for science.—You know how the force of electricity came to be used by man, and that electric power is such that no one can experience it inwardly through his normal forces; it remains an external force. And to a greater degree than one thinks that all the greatness of the nineteenth century arise through electricity. It would be quite easy to show how infinitely much in our present civilization depends upon electric power, and how much more, how very much more, will depend upon it in the future—even if it is employed in the present way without any inward knowledge. For in the evolution of human culture electric force has been put—as something by which man will be matured morally—in the place of the old, known force. Today in making use of electricity there is no thought of anything moral. There is wisdom in the progressive historical evolution of humanity. Man will mature by being able for a time to develop in his lower ego-bearer, in his uncontrolled egoism, what is deeply harmful—and in all conscience there is sufficient of this, as our own times clearly show. This would be quite out of the question should men have retained the ancient forces. It is electricity as a force in civilization which makes this possible. It is to a certain extent true of steam-power but to a lesser degree.

Now this is how the matter stands as I have explained to you. The first seventh part of our culture-period, that will last on into the third millennium, has passed; the peak of materialism has been reached. The social framework in which we live, that has brought about such lamentable occurrences in our days, is such that man cannot be subjected to it for another half-century without a fundamental change taking place in soul. For those having spiritual insight into world-evolution, this electoral age is, at the same time, the challenge to seek greater spiritual depth, a genuine spiritual deepening. For, to that force which remains outwardly unknown to sense-observation, there must be added in the soul the spiritual force line as deeply hidden as the electrical forces that also have to be awakened. Think how mysterious electrical power is! It was first drawn out of its secret hiding places by Galvani and Volta. And what dwells in the human soul, what is explored by Spiritual Science, that, too, lies hidden. The two like poles must meet each other. And as surely as the electric force is drawn out as the force hidden in nature, so surely will the force hidden in the soul,the force that belongs to it and is sought by Spiritual Science, also be drawn forth. This will be so, although today there are still many who look upon the endeavors of Spiritual Science as—well, almost as they might have looked upon the experiments of Galvani and Volta in the days they prepared their frogs and observed in the twitching of a leg that some force was at work. Did Science know that in the frog's leg lay the whole of Voltaic electricity, of Galvanism, all that is known today of electricity? Think back to the time when Galvani, it his primitive laboratory, was hanging his frog's leg to the window-latch; think of the moment when it began to twitch, and for the first time he was sure of this! It is true that it is not a question here of electricity itself being stimulated, but of contact electricity. When Galvani established this for the first time, could he suppose that the force that moved the frog's leg would someday be used by railways as a means of transport all over the world, or that with its aid thought would someday encircle the globe? It is not so very long since Galvani noticed this force in his frog's leg. If anyone had been expected such results to flow from this knowledge, he would certainly have been considered a fool. Thus, in our day, a man who presents the first beginnings of a spiritual science is considered a fool. A time will arrive when all that comes forth from Spiritual Science will be as important to the world, the moral world of soul and spirit, as a result of Galvani's experiment with the frog's leg for material civilization.

It is thus that progress is made in human evolution. It is only when we are aware of the things that we develop the will to collaborate in what can only be a beginning. If that other force, the force of electricity, which has been drawn out of its hiding place, has direct significance only for external, material culture, and only an indirect significance for the world of morality, what comes out of Spiritual Science will be of utmost importance in terms of its social significance. For the future, social institutions will be regulated by what Spiritual Science can give to humanity. Moreover, the whole of external, material culture will be indirectly stimulated by this Spiritual Science as well. I can only point to this today in closing.

Today we have seen Faust standing, as I said today, half in the old world and half in the new. Tomorrow we will expand this picure of Faust into one that will be a sort of worldview.

Das Faust-Problem

nach einer Aufführung der Szene im Studierzimmer aus «Faust» I

Ich möchte heute wiederum an das eben Dargestellte anknüpfen, um daraus eine Einheit zu gewinnen, die es dann möglich machen wird, morgen zu einer umfassenderen Betrachtung zu kommen.

Wir haben gesehen, wie der Übergang vom 14., 15. ins 16., 17. Jahrhundert in der ganzen Entwickelung der Menschheit einen außerordentlich bedeutenden Einschnitt zeigt, der Übergang von dem griechisch-lateinischen Zeitalter zu unserem fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum, zu dem Zeitraum, in dem wir jetzt leben, aus dem unsere Impulse für alles Erkennen und auch für alles Handeln fließen, zu dem Zeitraum, der bis zum vierten Jahrtausend währen wird. Nun, aus alldem, was Sie über Goethes «Faust» wissen und über den Zusammenhang dieses Goetheschen «Faust» mit der Faust-Gestalt, wie sie aus der Sage des 16. Jahrhunderts stammt, werden Sie einsehen, daß sowohl diese Faust-Gestalt aus dem 16. Jahrhundert wie dasjenige, was Goethes Anschauung aus ihr geformt hat, in innigem Zusammenhange steht mit all den Übergangsimpulsen, die das neue Zeitalter in geistiger Beziehung und damit auch in äußerlich materieller Beziehung heraufgebracht haben. Nun ist bei Goethe die Sache wirklich so, daß gerade dies Problem vom Heraufkommen der neuen Zeit und vom Fortwirken der Impulse der neuen Zeit ungeheuer mächtig war, daß er ganz und gar inspiriert war die sechzig Jahre, die er an seinem «Faust» geschaffen hat, von der Frage: Welches sind die wichtigsten Aufgaben, die wichtigsten Gesinnungsrichtungen der neueren Menschen? Und Goethe konnte wahrhaftig zurückblicken in das abgelaufene Zeitalter, das heute selbst der Wissenschaft so wenig mehr bekannt ist, jenes abgelaufene Zeitalter, das mit dem 14., i5. Jahrhundert zu Ende geht. Was die Geschichte meldet ich habe es oftmals gesagt — über die Seelenstimmung der Menschen, über die menschlichen Fähigkeiten und Bedürfnisse früherer Jahrhunderte, das ist doch im Grunde etwas, was recht sehr «graue Theorie» ist. In den Seelen der Menschen früherer Jahrhunderte, der Jahrhunderte noch, die dem Faust-Zeitalter vorangegangen sind, sah es gewaltig anders aus als in den Seelen der Gegenwartsmenschen, in den Seelen der gegenwärtigen Menschheitsepoche. Und Goethe hat so recht eine Gestalt, eine Persönlichkeit in seinem «Faust» verkörpert, die zurückblickt auf die Seelenverfassung der Menschen in früheren Jahrhunderten, in lang vergangenen Jahrhunderten, und die zugleich vorwärtsblickt auf die Aufgaben der Gegenwart, auf die Aufgaben der Zukunft.

Indem Faust zunächst zurückblickt auf das, was seinem Zeitalter vorangeht, kann er im Grunde nur noch auf die Trümmer einer zu Ende gegangenen Kultur blicken. Wir müssen zuerst immer den Faust des 16. Jahrhunderts ins Auge fassen, der eine historische Gestalt ist, der wirklich gelebt hat, und der dann in die Volkssage übergegangen ist. Dieser Faust lebte noch in den alten Wissenschaften darinnen, die er sich angeeignet hat, lebte in Magie, in Alchimie und in der Mystik darinnen, welche die Weisheit früherer Jahrhunderte war, namentlich auch die Weisheit der dem Christentum vorangegangenen Zeit war, die aber in der Zeit, in welcher der historische Faust des 16. Jahrhunderts lebte, schon gründlich im Verfall war. Das, was da in der Faust-Zeit als Alchimie, als Magie, als Mystik von denjenigen angesehen worden ist, unter denen Faust lebte, war durchaus schon krauses Zeug, war ein Zeug, das auf Traditionen, auf Hinterlassenschaften aus älterer Zeit fußte, in dem man sich aber nicht mehr auskannte. Die Weisheit, die darinnen lebte, kannte man nicht mehr. Man hatte mancherlei gesunde Formeln aus alten Zeiten, mancherlei richtige Einsichten aus alter Zeit, aber verstand sie nurmehr schlecht. Also in ein Zeitalter eines verfallenden Geisteslebens war in dieser Beziehung der geschichtliche Faust hineingestellt. Und Goethe vermischt fortwährend dasjenige, was der geschichtliche Faust erlebte, mit dem, was er geformt hat zum Faust des 18. Jahrhunderts, zum Faust des i9. Jahrhunderts, ja zum Faust noch vieler kommenden Jahrhunderte. Daher sehen wir auch den Goetheschen Faust wieder zurückblicken zur alten Magie, zur alten Art von Weisheit, Mystik, die nicht Chemie im heutigen materialistischen Sinne getrieben hat, die durch die Hantierungen mit der Natur in Zusammenhang kommen wollte mit einer geistigen Welt, aber die Kenntnisse schon nicht mehr hatte, um in der richtigen Art der früheren Zeit mit der geistigen Welt in Zusammenhang zu kommen. Was man in Jahrhunderten, die nun längst vergangen sind, als Heilkunde betrachtet hat, ist nicht so töricht, wie es eine heutige Wissenschaft oftmals machen will, nur ist die eigentliche darinnensteckende Weisheit verlorengegangen, und sie war zum Teil schon verloren im Zeitalter des Faust. Das kannte Goethe gut. Aber er kannte es nicht mit dem Verstande allein, er kannte es mit dem Herzen, er kannte es mit allen Seelenkräften, die an dem Wohl und Heil der Menschheit hängen und die für das Heil der Menschheit besonders in Betracht kommen. Goethe wollte sich die Rätselfragen, die für ihn daraus entsprossen, beantworten, daß man erkennen könne, wie man, immer weiter fortgehend, zu andern, für die neuere Zeit ebenso geeigneten Weisheiten in bezug auf die geistige Welt kommen könne, wie es die Alten vermochten, deren Weisheit nach dem Gange der Menschheit notwendig verglimmen mußte. Daher läßt er seinen Faust Magier werden. Faust hat sich der Magie ergeben wie der Faust des 16. Jahrhunderts. Aber er bleibt doch unbefriedigt aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil die eigentliche Weisheit der alten Magie eben schon verglommen war. Aus dieser Weisheit stammte auch die alte Heilkunde. Mit der alten Chemie, Alchimie stand alle Rezeptierkunde, alle Arzneikunde in Zusammenhang.

Nun berührt man, wenn man eine solche Frage berührt, sogleich die tiefsten Geheimnisse der Menschheit, insofern diese nämlich dahin gehen, daß man in Wahrheit Krankheiten nicht heilen kann, ohne sie zugleich erzeugen zu können. Die Wege zum Heilen der Krankheiten sind zugleich die Wege zum Erzeugen der Krankheiten. Wir werden gleich nachher hören, wie in der alten Weisheit durchaus der Grundsatz herrschend war, daß derjenige, der Heiler war, zugleich Erzeuger von Krankheiten sein konnte, und wie deshalb in alten Zeiten die Heilkunst mit einer tief moralischen Weltauffassung im Zusammenhang gedacht wurde. Aber wir werden auch gleich nachher sehen, wie wenig sich dasjenige hätte entwickeln können in diesen alten Zeiten, was man die neuere Freiheit der menschlichen Entwickelung nennt, die eigentlich erst in unserem fünften, in dem auf den griechisch-römischen folgenden Zeitraum von der Menschheit in Angriff genommen worden ist. Wir werden sehen, wie diese hätte sein müssen, wenn die alte Weisheit verblieben wäre. Auf allen Gebieten aber mußte diese Weisheit zugrunde gehen, damit der Mensch gewissermaßen von vorne anfangen müsse, aber so, daß er mit dem Wissen und mit dem Handeln zugleich zur Freiheit streben konnte. Das hätte er nicht können unter dem Einflusse der alten Weisheit. In solchen Übergangszeiten, wie diejenige war, in der Faust lebte, ist der Verfall des Alten da; das Neue ist noch nicht gekommen. Da entstehen denn solche Stimmungen, wie sie im «Faust» zu bemerken sind in der Szene, die vorangeht derjenigen, die wir heute dargestellt haben. In dieser Szene sehen wir ganz klar, wie Faust aus dem Zeitalter heraus ist und sich heraus fühlt, in dem noch alte Weisheit, aber die schon nicht mehr völlig verstandene alte Weisheit, da war. Wir sehen, wie Faust, von seinem Famulus Wagner begleitet, hinausgeht ins Grüne aus seiner Zelle, wie er zunächst das Volk betrachtet, welches das Osterfest im Freien, im Grünen feiert, wie er selbst österliche Stimmung bekommt. Aber wir sehen sogleich, wie er nicht entgegennehmen will die Huldigungen, die ihm von dem Volk dargebracht werden, Ein alter Bauer tritt ja auf, tritt Faust gegenüber und bringt Huldigungen dar, weil das Volk glaubt, daß Faust, der Sohn eines alten Adepten, eines alten Heilkundigen, auch ein bedeutender Heilkundiger sei, der Heil und Segen unter das Volk bringen kann. Ein alter Bauer tritt Faust entgegen und sagt:

Fürwahr, es ist sehr wohl getan,
Daß ihr am frohen Tag erscheint;
Habt ihr es vormals doch mit uns
An bösen Tagen gut gemeint!
Gar mancher steht lebendig hier,
Den euer Vater noch zuletzt
Der heißen Fieberwut entriß,
Als er der Seuche Ziel gesetzt.
Auch damals ihr, ein junger Mann,
Ihr gingt in jedes Krankenhaus,
Gar manche Leiche trug man fort,
Ihr aber kamt gesund heraus;
Bestandet manche harte Proben;
Dem Helfer half der Helfer droben.

Das sagt der alte Bauer, erinnernd, wie Faust zusammenhängt mit der alten Heilkunde, die aber sich nicht nur bezog auf die Heilung physischer Krankheiten, sondern auf die Heilung auch der moralischen Übel des Volkes. Faust weiß, daß er nicht mehr in einem Zeitalter gelebt hat, in dem die alte Weisheit wirklich hilfreich der Menschheit war, sondern schon in einer Verfallszeit. Und in seiner Seele glimmt auf Bescheidenheit, aber zu gleicher Zeit Niedergeschlagenheit über die Unwahrheit, der er eigentlich gegenübersteht, und er sagt:

Nur wenige Schritte noch hinauf zu jenem Stein,
Hier wollen wir von unsrer Wandrung rasten.
Hier saß ich oft gedankenvoll allein
Und quälte mich mit Beten und mit Fasten.
An Hoffnung reich, im Glauben fest,
Mit Tränen, Seufzen, Händeringen
Dacht ich das Ende jener Pest
Vom Herrn des Himmels zu erzwingen.
Der Menge Beifall tönt mir nun wie Hohn.
O könntest du in meinem Innern lesen,
Wie wenig Vater und Sohn
Solch eines Ruhmes wert gewesen!
Mein Vater war ein dunkler Ehrenmann,
Der über die Natur und ihre heil’gen Kreise,
In Redlichkeit, jedoch auf seine Weise,
Mit grillenhafter Mühe sann.
Der, in Gesellschaft von Adepten,
Sich in die schwarze Küche schloß
Und, nach unendlichen Rezepten,
Das Widrige zusammengoß.
Da ward ein roter Leu, ein kühner Freier,
Im lauen Bad der Lilie vermählt,
Und beide dann mit offnem Flammenfeuer
Aus einem Brautgemach ins andere gequält.

Also Goethe hat sehr wohl studiert, wie man dazumal verfahren ist, wie man den «roten Leu» — das Quecksilberoxyd, Schwefelquecksilber — behandelt hat, wie man die verschiedenen Chemikalien zusammengemischt und ihren Prozessen überlassen hat, wie man Arzeneien daraus fabriziert hat. Das alles aber entsprach nicht mehr der alten Weisheit. Goethe kennt auch die Ausdrucksweise. Man hat durchaus das, was man darzustellen hatte, in Bildern dargestellt. Die Verbindungen von Stoffen hat man wie eine Vermählung dargestellt. Daher sagt er:

Aus einem Brautgemach ins andere gequält.
Erschien darauf mit bunten Farben
Die junge Königin im Glas —

Das war ein Kunstausdruck. Wie in der heutigen Chemie Kunstausdrücke sind, so nannte man dazumal, wenn gewisse Substanzen einen gewissen Zustand und Farbe erreicht haben, «die junge Königin».

Hier war die Arzenei, die Patienten starben,

Sie starben damals dem Faust weg, wie sie auch heute noch bei vielen Arzeneien sterben.

Hier war die Arzenei, die Patienten starben,
Und niemand fragte: wer genas?
So haben wir mit höllischen Latwergen
In diesen Tälern, diesen Bergen
Weit schlimmer als die Pest getobt.
Ich habe selbst den Gift an Tausende gegeben,
Sie welkten hin, ich muß erleben,
Daß man die frechen Mörder lobt.

Das ist Selbsterkenntnis des Faust. So steht Faust nun vor sich selber da, er, von dem Sie wissen, daß er in alten magischen Weistümern sich umgetan hat, um in die Geheimnisse der Natur und des Geistes einzudringen. Durch alles das ist er aber vergeistigt worden. So wie Wagner, sein Famulus, der sich Genüge getan hat mit der neueren Weisheit, die im Schriftwerke ruht, die in Buchstaben ruht, kann es Faust nicht halten. Dieser Wagner ist ja eine Persönlichkeit, welche weit geringere Ansprüche an die Weisheit und an das Leben stellt. Und als Faust sich hineinträumen will in die Natur, um den Geist der Natur zu finden, da denkt der Wagner nur an den Geist, der ihm aus den Theorien, aus dem Pergamente, aus den Büchern fließt. Was da über Faust kommt, nennt er grillenhafte Stunden:

Ich hatte selbst oft grillenhafte Stunden,

— sagt Wagner —

Doch solchen Trieb hab ich noch nie empfunden.
Man sieht sich leicht an Wald und Feldern satt,
Des Vogels Fittich werd ich nie beneiden.

Er will nie mit dem Vogel hinausfliegen, um die Welt kennenzulernen!

Wie anders tragen uns die Geistesfreuden
Von Buch zu Buch, von Blatt zu Blatt!
Da werden Winternächte hold und schön,
Ein selig Leben wärmet alle Glieder,
Und ach! entrollst du gar ein würdig Pergamen,
So steigt der ganze Himmel zu dir nieder.

Ein vollständiger Büchermensch, ein ganzer Theorienmensch!

So, nachdem das Volk abgegangen ist, stehen sie nun da: derjenige, der hinein will zu des Lebens Quellen, der sein eigenes Wesen verbinden will mit den geheimnisvollen Kräften der Natur, um diese geheimnisvollen Kräfte der Natur zu erleben: Faust — und derjenige, der nichts sieht als das äußere materielle Leben und dasjenige, was in den Büchern eben durch Materie aufgezeichnet ist: Wagner. Man braucht nicht viel nachzudenken, was, durch all das, was er erlebt hat bis zu diesem Augenblicke, wie es uns Goethe darstellt, in Fausts Innerem vorgegangen ist; soviel aber kann man sich sagen nach alledem, was uns in Faust entgegentritt, daß das Innere, man möchte sagen, sich um- und umgekehrt hat, daß eine wirkliche Seelenentwickelung bei Faust stattgefunden hat, daß er ein gewisses inneres Schauen erlangt hat, sonst hätte er nicht den Erdgeist rufen können, der im Tatensturm auf und ab wallt. Eine gewisse Fähigkeit, die äußere Welt nicht nur ihren äußeren Erscheinungen nach zu sehen, sondern den Geist zu sehen, der in allem webt und lebt, hat sich Faust angeeignet. Da springt ihnen, Faust und Wagner, ein Pudel von ferne entgegen. Wie sie beide den Pudel sehen, einen gewöhnlichen Pudel, wie ihn Faust sieht und wie ihn Wagner sieht, das charakterisiert die beiden Menschen ganz und gar. Nachdem Faust sich hineingeträumt hat in das lebendige Geistweben der Natur, erblickt er den Pudel:

Siehst du den schwarzen Hund durch Saat und Stoppel streifen?

Wagner: Ich sah ihn lange schon, nicht wichtig schien er mir.

Faust: Betracht ihn recht! Für was hältst du das Tier?

Wagner: Für einen Pudel, der auf seine Weise Sich auf der Spur des Herren plagt.

In Kreisen geht der Pudel ringsherum.

Faust: Bemerkst du, wie im weiten Schneckenkreise
Er um uns her und immer näher jagt?
Und irr’ ich nicht, so zieht ein Feuerstrudel
Auf seinen Pfaden hinterdrein.

Faust sieht nicht bloß den Pudel, sondern im Inneren des Faust regt sich etwas, er sieht etwas, was zum Pudel gehört wie ein Geistiges. Das sieht Faust. Wagner sieht es selbstverständlich nicht. Mit äußeren Augen kann man ja das nicht sehen, was Faust sieht.

Wagner: Ich sehe nichts als einen schwarzen Pudel;
Es mag bei euch wohl Augentäuschung sein.

Faust: Mir scheint es, daß er magisch leise Schlingen
Zu künft’gem Band um unsre Füße zieht.

Wagner: Ich seh’ ihn ungewiß und furchtsam uns umspringen,
Weil er, statt seines Herrn, zwei Unbekannte sieht.

Faust sieht also in dieser einfachen Erscheinung zugleich etwas Geistiges. Halten wir das fest. Faust geht, indem sein Inneres ergriffen ist von einem gewissen Geistzusammenhang selbst mit diesem Pudel, nun in sein Studierzimmer. Nun, selbstverständlich, dramatisch stellt Goethe das so dar, daß der Pudel da ist, wie er ist; das ist auch gut, das Drama muß das so darstellen. Aber im Grunde haben wir es doch mit etwas, was Faust innerlich erlebt, zu tun. Und wie jetzt diese Szene sich abspielt, wie Faust hier etwas innerlich erlebt, das ist von Goethe wirklich meisterlich in jedem Worte gesagt. Sie sind draußen geblieben, Faust und Wagner, bis in die Nacht hinein, wo das äußere Licht nicht mehr wirkt, wo nur die Dämmerung gewirkt hat. In die Dämmerung hinein sieht Faust dasjenige, was er geistig sehen will. Nun kommt er nach Hause wiederum in seine Zelle. Nun ist er allein mit sich. Solch ein Mensch wie Faust, nachdem er all das durchgemacht hat, mit sich allein gelassen, ist in der Lage, Selbsterkenntnis, das heißt, das Leben des Geistes im eigenen Selbst zu erleben. Er drückt es aus, wie gewissermaßen sein Innerstes rege geworden ist, aber auf geistige Art rege geworden ist:

Verlassen hab’ ich Feld und Auen,
Die eine tiefe Nacht bedeckt,
Mit ahnungsvollem, heil’gem Grauen
In uns die beßre Seele weckt.
Entschlafen sind nun wilde Triebe
Mit jedem ungestümen Tun;
Es reget sich die Menschenliebe,
Die Liebe Gottes regt sich nun.

Der Pudel knurrt. Aber seien wir uns klar: es sind innere Erlebnisse, auch das Pudelknurren ist inneres Erlebnis, wenn es auch dramatisch äußerlich dargestellt wird. Faust hat sich mit der verfallenden Magie eingelassen, mit Mephistopheles eingelassen. Mephistopheles ist kein Geist, der ihn in die fortschreitenden, regulären geistigen Kräfte hineinführt, Mephistopheles ist der Geist, den Faust erst überwinden muß, der ihm beigesellt wird, daß er ihn überwinde, der ihm zur Prüfung, nicht zur Belehrung, beigegeben ist. Das heißt: wir sehen jetzt Faust vor uns stehen, wie er auf der einen Seite hinein will in die göttlich-geistige Welt, welche die Weltentwickelung vorwärtsträgt, und wie auf der andern Seite die Kräfte in seiner Seele rege sind, die ihn hinunterziehen ins gewöhnliche Triebleben, das den Menschen abbringt von dem geistigen Streben. Gerade wenn Heiliges in seiner Seele sich regt, da spottet es; die entgegenstehenden Triebe spotten. Dies ist jetzt in Form äußerlicher Ereignisse wunderbar dargestellt: Faust, gewissermaßen nach dem Göttlich-Geistigen mit all seinem Wissen hinstrebend, und seine eigenen Triebe, die dagegen knurren, so wie der materialistische Sinn des Menschen knurrt gegen das geistige Streben. Und wenn Faust sagt: Sei ruhig, Pudel! Knurre nicht — so beruhigt er im Grunde genommen sich selber. Und nun spricht Faust, das heißt, in diesem Fall läßt Goethe Faust in einer wunderbaren Weise sprechen. Erst wenn man eingeht auf die einzelnen Worte, findet man, wie wunderbar Goethe das innere Leben des Menschen in geistiger Entwickelung kennt:

Ach, wenn in unsrer engen Zelle
Die Lampe freundlich wieder brennt,
Dann wird’s in unserm Busen helle,
Im Herzen, das sich selber kennt —

im Herzen, das Selbsterkenntnis, das heißt, den Geist im eigenen Selbst sucht.

Vernunft fängt wieder an zu sprechen -.

Ein bedeutungsvoller Satz! Derjenige, der die geistige Entwickelung durchmacht, in die Faust gebracht wird durch sein Leben, weiß, daß Vernunft nicht nur etwas Totes im Inneren ist, kennt nicht nur die Kopfvernunft, weiß, wie lebendig Vernunft wird, wie inneres Geistweben Vernunft wird und wirklich spricht. Das ist kein bloßes dichterisches Bild:

Vernunft fängt wieder an zu sprechen,
Und Hoffnung wieder an zu blühn.

Vernunft spricht, fängt wieder an zu sprechen über das Vergangene, das lebendig geblieben ist aus dem Vergangenen, und Hoffnung wieder an zu blühen, das heißt, unseren Willen finden wir umgestaltet, so daß wir wissen, wir werden durch die Pforte des Todes als ein geistig-lebendiges Wesen gehen. Die Zukunft und die Vergangenheit gliedern sich wunderbar zusammen. Goethe will Faust sagen lassen, daß Faust weiß, in der Selbsterkenntnis das innere Leben des Geistes zu finden.

Man sehnt sich nach des Lebens Bächen,
Ach! nach des Lebens Quelle hin.

Und nun sucht Faust näherzukommen dem, wonach es ihn drängt, nach des Lebens Quellen. Einen Weg sucht er zunächst: den Weg der religiösen Erhebung. Er greift zum Neuen Testament. Und wie er jetzt zum Neuen Testament greift, das ist eine wunderbare Darstellung Goethescher weisheitsvoller Dramatik. Zu demjenigen greift er, wo die tiefsten Weisheitsworte der neueren Zeit darinnenstehen, zum JohannesEvangelium. Das will er in sein geliebtes Deutsch übersetzen. Daß Goethe den Moment des Übersetzens wählt, das ist bedeutungsvoll. Derjenige, der das Wirken tiefer Welten- und Geisterwesenheiten kennt, weiß, daß beim Herübertragen von Weisheiten aus einer Sprache in eine andere alle Geister der Verwirrung auftreten, alle Geister der Verwirrung eingreifen. In den Grenzgebieten des Lebens äußern sich insbesondere der menschlichen Entwickelung und dem menschlichen Heil entgegenstehende Mächte. Goethe wählt absichtlich die Übersetzung, um den Geist der Verkehrtheit, ja den Geist der Lüge, der jetzt noch im Pudel ist, hinzustellen neben den Geist der Wahrheit. Geht man auf das ein, was an Gefühlen und Empfindungen aus einer solchen Szene herausfließen kann, dann erscheint einem die wunderbare geistige Tiefe, die in diesen Szenen lebt. Alle die Anfechtungen, die ich eben charakterisiert habe, die von dem kommen, was im Pudel steckt, die sich aufbäumen, um die Wahrheit in die Unwahrheit zu entstellen, all das wirkt fort und wirkt gerade hinein in eine Tat des Faust, die einem recht Gelegenheit gibt, Wahrheit in Unwahrheit zu entstellen. Und wie wenig man eigentlich bemerkt, daß Goethe dies gewollt hat, das zeigen heute noch immer die verschiedenen Faust-Erklärer, denn diese FaustErklärer — was sagen sie denn gerade über diese Szene? Nun, Sie können es lesen. Da wird gesagt: Goethe ist eben ein Mensch des äußeren Lebens, dem genügt das Wort nicht, er muß das Johannes-Evangelium verbessern, er muß eine richtigere Übersetzung finden, nicht: Im Anfang war das Wort, der Logos, sondern: Im Anfang war die Tat. Das findet Faust nach langem Zögern heraus. Das ist eine tiefe GoetheWeisheit.

Diese Weisheit ist nicht eine Faust-Weisheit, ist eine echte WagnerWeisheit, eine richtige Wagner-Weisheit! Geradeso wie jene Weisheit, die so oft und oft betont wird, daß Faust später dem Gretchen gegenüber so schöne Worte über das religiöse Leben sagt: Wer kann ihn nennen, wer bekennen, den Allumfasser, der alles hält und trägt, und so weiter -— Gretchen-Weisheit ist! Das, was da Faust dem Gretchen sagt, das ist immer wieder und wieder zitiert worden, und es wird immer wieder und wiederum als eine tiefe Weisheit hingestellt von den Herren, die das zitieren, den Herren Gelehrten:

Wer darf ihn nennen?
Und wer bekennen:
Ich glaub’ ihn?
Wer empfinden
Und sich unterwinden
Zu sagen: ich glaub’ ihn nicht?
Der Allumfasser,
Der Allerhalter,
Faßt und erhält er nicht
Dich, mich, sich selbst?
Wölbt sich der Himmel nicht da droben?
Liegt die Erde nicht hierunten fest?
Und steigen freundlich blickend
Ewige Sterne nicht herauf?
Schau ich nicht Aug? in Auge dir,
Und drängt nicht alles
Nach Haupt und Herzen dir...
und so weiter.

Das, was da Faust sagt, wird als eine tiefe Weisheit oftmals dargestellt! Nun, hätte es Goethe als die allertiefste Weisheit gemeint, so hätte er es nicht Faust in dem Moment in den Mund gelegt, da er das sechzehnjährige Gretchen unterrichten will. Eine Gretchen -Weisheit ist es! Man muß die Dinge nur ernst nehmen. Die Gelehrten sind nur aufgesessen. Sie haben dasjenige, was eine Gretchen-Weisheit ist, für tiefe Philosophie genommen. Und so wird denn auch das, was da als Bibelübersetzung bei Faust auftritt, für eine ganz besonders tiefe Weisheit genommen, während Goethe nichts anderes darstellen will, als, wie Wahrheit und Irrtum den Menschen hin und her werfen, wenn er an eine solche Aufgabe geht. Tief, tief hat Goethe diese zwei Seelen des Faust gerade bei dieser Bibelübersetzung dargestellt.

Geschrieben steht: «Im Anfang war das Wort!»

Wir wissen, es ist der griechische Logos. Das steht wirklich im Johannes-Evangelium. Dagegen bäumt sich dasjenige, was durch den Pudel symbolisiert wird, in Faust auf, will ihn nicht zu dem tieferen Sinn des Johannes-Evangeliums kommen lassen. Warum ist gerade das Wort, der Logos, gewählt von dem Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums? Weil der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums kennzeichnen will, daß dasjenige, was das Wichtigste ist in der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung, was den Menschen in der Erdenentwickelung äußerlich wirklich zum Menschen macht, nicht sich nach und nach entwickelt hat, sondern in den Urbeginnen da war. Wodurch unterscheidet sich der Mensch von allen übrigen Wesen? Dadurch, daß er sprechen kann, alle übrigen Wesen — Tiere, Pflanzen, Mineralien — nicht. Der Materialist glaubt, daß der Mensch zum Wort, das heißt zur Sprache, zum Logos, der vom Denken durchzittert ist, erst gekommen sei, nachdem er die tierische Entwickelung durchgemacht hat. Das Johannes-Evangelium nimmt die Sache tiefer und sagt: Nein, im Urbeginne war das Wort. Das heißt: Des Menschen Entwickelung ist ursprünglich veranlagt; der Mensch ist nicht bloß im materialistisch-darwinistischen Sinne höchste Spitze der Tierwelt, sondern in den allerersten Absichten der Erdenentwickelung, in den Urbeginnen, im Anfange war das Wort. Und nur dadurch kann der Mensch auf Erden ein Ich entwickeln, wozu die Tiere nicht kommen, daß einverwoben ist das Wort der menschlichen Entwickelung. Das Wort steht geradezu für das Ich des Menschen. Aber gegen diese Wahrheit bäumt sich der Geist, der dem Faust beigegeben ist, der Geist der Unwahrheit, auf, und er muß tiefer herunter, er kann noch nicht verstehen die ganze tiefe Weisheit, die in dem Johannes-Worte liegt.

Hier stock’ ich schon!

Aber es ist eigentlich der Pudel, der Hund in ihm, und was im Pudel steckt, was ihn stocken macht. Er kommt nicht höher hinauf, er kommt im Gegenteil tiefer herunter.

Hier stock? ich schon! Wer hilft mir weiter fort?
Ich kann das Wort so hoch unmöglich schätzen,
Ich muß es anders übersetzen,
Wenn ich vom Geiste recht erleuchtet bin.

Während er den Mephistopheles an sich herankommen sieht, glaubt er gerade, daß er vom Geist erleuchtet ist; er ist aber vom Geist der Finsternis verfinstert und kommt herunter.

Geschrieben steht: «Im Anfang war der Sinn!»

Das ist nicht höher als das Wort. Der Sinn waltet, wie wir leicht nachweisen können, auch im Leben der Tiere, doch das Tier kommt nicht zum menschlichen Worte. Des Sinnes ist der Mensch fähig dadurch, daß er einen astralischen Leib hat. Faust steigt tiefer in sich herunter, vom Ich in den astralischen Leib hinein.

...«Im Anfang war der Sinn.»
Bedenke wohl die erste Zeile,
Daß deine Feder sich nicht übereile!

Er glaubt höher zu kommen, aber er kommt tiefer.

Ist es der Sinn, der alles wirkt und schafft?

Nein, er steigt noch tiefer hinab von dem astralischen zu dem dichter-materiellen Ätherleibe und schreibt:

«Im Anfang war die Kraft!»

Kraft ist dasjenige, was im Ätherleibe lebt.

Doch, auch indem ich dieses niederschreibe,

Schon warnt mich was, daß ich dabei nicht bleibe.

Mir hilft der Geist!

Der Geist, der in dem Pudel steckt!

Auf einmal seh’ ich Rat
Und schreibe getrost: «Im Anfang war die Tat!»

Und jetzt ist er beim völligen Materialismus angekommen, jetzt ist er beim physischen Leib, durch den die äußere Tat sich vollzieht.

Wort (Logos) — Ich
Sinn - Astralleib
Kraft - Ätherleib
Tat - Physischer Leib

So haben Sie Faust lebend und webend in einem Stück Selbsterkenntnis. Er übersetzt die Bibel falsch, weil die verschiedenen Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit, die wir so oft besprochen haben - Ich, astralischer Leib, Ätherleib, physischer Leib -, in ihm in chaotischer Weise durch den mephistophelischen Geist zusammenwirken. Jetzt zeigt sich auch, wie diese Triebe walten, denn das äußere Bellen des Pudels ist dasjenige, was sich in ihm gegen die Wahrheit aufbäumt. Er kann noch nicht in seiner Erkenntnis die Weisheit des Christentums erfassen. Das sehen wir an der Art und Weise, wie er Wort, Sinn, Kraft, Tat in Zusammenhang bringt. Aber in ihm lebt schon der Drang, der Trieb zum Christentum. Indem er das, was als der Christus in ihm lebt, lebendig macht, besiegt er den Gegengeist. Er versucht es zunächst mit dem, was er aus der alten Magie erhalten hat. Da weicht der Geist nicht, da zeigt er sich nicht in seiner wahren Gestalt. Die vier Elemente und ihre Geister: Salamander, Sylphe, Undine, Gnomen ruft er auf; das alles beirrt den Geist nicht, der in dem Pudel steckt. Aber als er die ChristusGestalt aufruft: den freventlich durchstochenen, durch alle Himmel ergossenen — da muß der Pudel seine wahre Gestalt zeigen.

Alles das ist im Grunde Selbsterkenntnis, eine Selbsterkenntnis, die Goethe ganz deutlich macht. Was tritt auf? Ein fahrender Scholast! Faust übt wirklich Selbsterkenntnis; er steht im Grunde genommen sich selbst gegenüber. Erst haben in der Pudelgestalt die wilden Triebe, die sich gegen die Wahrheit aufgelehnt haben, gewirkt, und jetzt gewissermaßen wird er sich klar, klar-unklar! Der fahrende Scholast steht vor ihm. Es ist aber nur das andere Ich des Faust. Er ist selber nicht viel mehr geworden als ein fahrender Scholast mit all den Irrtümlichkeiten, die im fahrenden Scholasten sind; nur eben derber und gründlicher tritt ihm jetzt, wo er durch seinen Zusammenschluß mit der geistigen Welt die Triebe genauer kennenlernt, der fahrende Scholast, das heißt sein eigenes Selbst, wie er sich es bisher angeeignet hat, entgegen. Faust hat gelernt wie ein Scholast, nur hat er sich dann der Magie ergeben, und durch die Magie ist die Schulweisheit verteufelt worden. Was aus dem alten guten Faust geworden ist, wie er noch ein fahrender Scholast war, das ist er nur dadurch geworden, daß er noch die alte Magie darauf gesetzt hat. In ihm steckt noch der fahrende Scholast: er tritt ihm in verwandelter Gestalt entgegen. Es ist nur das eigene Selbst. Auch dieser fahrende Scholast ist das eigene Selbst. Der Kampf, das alles loszuwerden, was einem da als eigenes Selbst entgegentritt, der ist nun in der weiteren Szene enthalten.

Es ist von Goethe immer versucht, in den verschiedenen Gestalten, mit denen Faust zusammen auftritt, nur das andere Ich des Faust zu zeigen, damit Faust immer mehr und mehr sich selbst erkennt. Vielleicht erinnern sich manche von den Zuhörern, daß ich in früheren Vorträgen auseinandersetzte, wie auch der Wagner in Faust selber darinnensteckt, wie der Wagner auch nur ein anderes Ich des Faust ist. Auch der Mephistopheles ist nur ein anderes Ich. Alles Selbsterkenntnis! An der Welterkenntnis wird Selbsterkenntnis geübt. Aber das alles ist nicht in klarer Geist-Erkenntnis jetzt bei Faust; das alles ist in unklarer, dumpfer, man möchte sagen, doch noch von alter atavistischer Hellseherkunst beeinträchtigter Geist-Seherkraft in Faust enthalten. Es ist nicht geklärt. Es ist nicht helle Erkenntnis, es ist traumhafte Erkenntnis. Das wird uns dargestellt, wie die Traumgeister, die eigentlich Gruppenseelen von all denjenigen Wesen sind, die Mephistopheles begleiten, Faust umgaukeln, und wie er zuletzt erwacht. Und da läßt Goethe Faust ganz klar und deutlich sagen:

Bin ich denn abermals betrogen?
Verschwindet so der geisterreiche Drang,
Daß mir ein Traum den Teufel vorgelogen,
Und daß ein Pudel mir entsprang?

Goethe gebraucht schon die Methode, immer wieder und wiederum auf die Wahrheit hinzudeuten. Daß er es eigentlich als Innenerlebnis des Faust meint, das ist in diesen vier Zeilen deutlich genug ausgesprochen. Auch diese Szene zeigt uns, wie Goethe rang nach Erkenntnis des Überganges der alten Zeit in die neue, in der er selbst lebte, des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraums in den fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum. Die Grenze ist im 14., 15., 16. Jahrhundert. Wer im heutigen Denken lebt, der kann sich, wenn er nicht besondere Studien macht, keine gute Vorstellung machen von der Seelenentwickelung vergangener Jahrhunderte, so sagte ich vorhin. Und zu Fausts Zeiten waren nur noch die Trümmer vorhanden. Wir erleben es oft, daß heute die Menschen nicht zu der neueren Geistesforschung, wie wir sie anstreben, herankommen wollen, sondern die alte Weisheit wieder aufwärmen wollen. Wie mancher glaubt, wenn er dasjenige, was die Alten besessen haben, wieder aufwärmt bei sich, dadurch zu einer tieferen, magisch-mystischen Weisheit über die Natur zu kommen! Zwei Unfuge, möchte ich sagen, stehen da allem geistigen Streben der Menschen ungemein nahe. Das erste ist, daß die Menschen alte, uralte Bücher sich kaufen und studieren und nun höher schätzen als die neuere Wissenschaft. Sie schätzen sie meist nur deshalb höher, weil sie sie nicht verstehen, weil die Sprache wirklich schon nicht mehr verstanden werden kann. Das ist der eine Unfug, daß man immer wieder und wiederum mit dem zum Kauderwelsch gewordenen Inhalt der alten Bücher kommt, wenn man von Geistesforschung reden will. Das andere ist, daß man möglichst den neueren Bestrebungen alte Namen geben will und sie sich damit geheiligt hat. Sehen Sie sich manche, die sich okkulte oder geheime oder sonstige Gesellschaften nennen, an. Ihr ganzes Bestreben geht dahin, möglichst weit sich zurückzudatieren, möglichst viel zu erklären über eine legendarische Vergangenheit, in alten Namengebungen sich zu gefallen. Das ist der zweite Unfug. All das braucht man nicht mitzumachen, wenn man wirklich die Bedürfnisse und Impulse unserer Zeit und der notwendigen Zukunft durchschaut. Man kann jedes beliebige Buch aufschlagen aus der Zeit, wo noch gewissermaßen Traditionen vorhanden waren. Da sieht man aus der Art und Weise, wie dargestellt wird, daß Hinterlassenschaften, Traditionen von einer alten Urweisheit vorhanden waren, welche die Menschheit besessen hat, daß aber diese Weisheit in Verfall geraten war. Die Ausdrucksweise, alles ist noch da, sogar ziemlich spät noch da.

Es steht mir gerade ein Buch zur Verfügung, das gedruckt ist im Jahre 1740, also sogar erst im 18. Jahrhundert. Ich will eine kleine Stelle daraus vorlesen, eine Stelle, der gegenüber man sicher sein kann, daß mancher, der heute geistige Wissenschaft sucht, wenn solch eine Stelle an ihn herantritt, sagt: Abgrundartige, tiefe Weisheit! Oh, was ist darinnen alles enthalten! - Es gibt sogar dann manche, die glauben, daß sie eine solche Stelle verstehen. Nun, ich will Ihnen zunächst vorlesen die Stelle, die ich meine:

«Die Crone des Königes soll von reinem Golde sein, und eine keusche Braut soll ihm vermählet werden. Darum, so du durch unserer Cörper wirken willt, so nimm den geitzigen grauen Wolff, so seines Namens halben dem streitigen Marti unterworffen, von Gebuhrt aber ein Kind des alten Saturni ist, so in den Thälern und Bergen der Welt gefunden wird, und mit großem Hunger besessen, und wirf ihm für den Leib des Königes, daß er daran seine Zehrung haben möge.»

So hat man in alten Zeiten diese chemischen Vorgänge, die man eingerichtet hat, benannt, hat gesprochen von gewissen chemischen Vorgängen, auf die’Faust auch anspielt, wenn er davon spricht, wie ein roter Leu vermählt wird der Lilie im Glase und so weiter. Es ist nicht ordentlich, zu spotten über diese Dinge aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil die Art und Weise, die heute die Chemie spricht, für die Leute, die später kommen, wieder geradeso klingen wird, wie das für uns. Aber klar sollen wir uns sein, daß das auch entstanden ist sogar schon in einer sehr späten Verfallzeit. Hingedeutet wird auf einen «grauen Wolff». Mit diesem «grauen Wolff» ist ein gewisses Erz gemeint, das man in den Bergen überall findet und das einer gewissen Prozedur unterworfen wird. «König» nannte man einen gewissen Zustand von Substanzen. Und dasjenige, was hier erzählt wird, soll auf eine gewisse Hantierung hindeuten. Man nahm das graue Erz, behandelte es in einer gewissen Weise. Dieses graue Erz nannte man den «geitzigen grauen Wolff», das andere den «goldenen König», wo das Gold, nachdem es in einer gewissen Weise behandelt wurde, der «goldene König» war. Und da entstand eine Verbindung. Diese Verbindung beschreibt der Verfasser so noch: «Und wenn er den König verschlungen ...»

Also es entsteht das, daß der «graue geitzige Wolff», das heißt, das graue Erz, das in den Bergen gefunden war, sich mit dem goldenen König — das ist ein gewisser Zustand des Goldes, nachdem es chemisch behandelt worden ist — verschmolzen hat. Da ist das Gold verschwunden in das graue Erz hinein. Er stellt es dar: «Und wenn er den König verschlungen, so mache ein gross Feuer, und wirff den Wolff darein... .» Also der Wolf, der das Gold aufgefressen hat, den goldenen König, wird in das Feuer geworfen. «Daß er gantz und gar verbrenne, so wird der König wieder erlöset werden.» Das Gold kommt wiederum zum Vorschein!

«Wenn das dreymal geschiehet, so hat der Löwe den Wolff überwunden und wird nichts mehr an ihm zu verzehren finden, so ist dann unser Leib vollkommen zum Anfang unsers Werkes.»

Also er macht auf diese Weise irgend etwas. Wollte man wissen, was er macht, so müßte man diese Prozeduren sehr ausführlich beschreiben, namentlich wie der goldene König gemacht wird; aber es läßt sich das hier nicht beschreiben. Diese Prozeduren werden heute auch nicht mehr ausgeführt. Aber was verspricht sich denn der Mann? Er verspricht sich etwas, was durchaus nicht ganz aus der Luft gegriffen ist, denn er hat jetzt etwas gemacht. Wozu hat er denn das eigentlich gemacht? Das heißt, derjenige, der das hat drucken lassen, wird es wohl gar nicht mehr gemacht haben, sondern er hat es alten Büchern nachgeschrieben. Aber wozu ist das gemacht worden in der Zeit, als man die Dinge noch verstanden hat? Das können Sie aus dem folgenden ersehen:

«Und wisse, dass dieses nur allein der rechte Weg ist hiezu, tüchtig unsere Cörper zu reinigen, denn der Leo säubert sich durch das Geblüte‘ des Wolffs, und des Geblüts Tinctur freuet sich wunderbarlich mit der Tinctur des Löwens, denn ihr beyder Geblüt sind in der Gesippschafft naher Verwandnus.»

Also jetzt lobt er das, was er hat entstehen lassen. Eine Art Arzenei hat er bekommen.

«Und wann sich der Löwe ersättiget hat, ist sein Geist stärcker worden denn zuvor, und seine Augen geben einen stoltzen Glantz von sich wie die helle Sonne.»

Das ist alles die Eigenschaft dessen, was er da in der Retorte darinnen hat!

«Sein inners Wesen vermag denn viel zu thun, und ist nützlich zu alle dem, dazu man ihn erfordert, und so er in seine Bereitschaft gebracht wird, so danken ihm die Menschenkinder, mit schweren herfallenden Kranckheiten und mehrern Seuchen beladen, die zehen aussätzigen Männer lauffen ihm nach und begehren zu trincken von dem Blut seiner Seelen, und alle, so Gebrechen haben, erfreuen sich höchlich seines Geistes; denn wer von diesem güldenen Brunnen trinckt, empfindet eine gantze Erneuerung der Natur, Hinnehmung des Bösens, Stärcke des Geblüts, Krafft des Hertzens und eine vollkommene Gesundheit aller Glieder.»

Sie sehen, es ist hingedeutet darauf, daß man es mit einer Arzenei zu tun hat, aber es ist hier auch hinlänglich darauf hingedeutet, daß das etwas zu tun hat auch mit dem, was als moralische Eigenschaft des Menschen auftritt. Denn natürlich, nimmt es derjenige, der gesund ist, in der entsprechenden Menge, dann tritt das auf, was der da beschreibt. So meint er es, und so ist es auch bei den Alten gewesen, die noch etwas von den Dingen verstanden haben.

«Denn wer von diesem güldenen Brunnen trinckt, empfindet eine gantze Erneuerung der Natur.»

Also er hat gestrebt durch diese Kunst, die er da beschrieben hat, nach einer Tinktur, durch die wirkliche Lebensregung in den Menschen hineinkommt:

«Kraft des Hertzens, Stärcke des Geblüts und eine vollkommene Gesundheit aller Glieder, sie seynd innen beschlossen, oder ausser dem Leibe empfindlich: denn es eröffnet alle Nervos und Poros, damit das Böse kan ausgetrieben werden, und das Gute dero Stäte ruhiglich bewohnen kan.»

Ich habe dieses zunächst vorgelesen, um zu zeigen, wie schon selbst noch in diesen Trümmern einer alten Weisheit ein Niederschlag zu bemerken ist von dem, was man in alten Zeiten anstrebte. Man hat angestrebt, durch äußerliche Mittel, die man sich aus der Natur hergestellt hat, den Körper anzuregen, das heißt, gewisse Tüchtigkeiten nicht bloß durch inneres, moralisches Streben zu erlangen, sondern durch Mittel der Natur selber, die man sich hergestellt hat. Halten Sie das einmal einen Augenblick fest, denn da werden wir auf etwas Wichtiges geführt, was unseren Zeitraum unterscheidet von früheren Zeiträumen. Es ist heute durchaus billig, über den alten Aberglauben zu spotten, denn dann handelt man sich dafür ein, daß man vor der ganzen Welt als ein gescheiter Mensch gilt, während man sonst nicht als ein gescheiter Mensch gilt, wenn man in uraltem Wissen etwas Vernünfliges sieht. Etwas, was sogar der Menschheit verlorengegangen ist und verlorengehen mußte aus gewissen Gründen, weil in diesem Streben der alten Zeit die Menschen niemals hätten zur Freiheit kommen können. Aber sehen Sie, Sie finden in alten Büchern, die jetzt in ältere Zeiten zurückgehen als dieser Schmöker, der eben einer sehr späten Verfallzeit angehört, Sie finden in alten Büchern, was Sie gut kennen: Sonne und Gold mit einem gemeinsamen Zeichen, mit diesem Zeichen: O; Sie finden Mond und Silber mit diesem Zeichen: (. Für den heutigen Menschen ist dieses Zeichen angewendet auf Gold und Sonne, und dieses . Zeichen angewendet auf Mond und Silber, für Seelenfähigkeiten, die der heutige Mensch notwendigerweise hat, natürlich ein voller Unsinn. Es ist ein voller Unsinn, wie in der Literatur, die sich oftmals auch eine «esoterische» Literatur nennt, über diese Dinge gesprochen wird, denn man hat meistens gar nicht die Mittel zu erkennen, warum in alten Zeiten Sonne und Gold und Mond und Silber mit dem gleichen Zeichen bezeichnet worden ist.

Gehen wir einmal aus von Mond und Silber mit diesem Zeichen: C. Wenn wir zurückgehen noch in die Zeit, sagen wir, ein paar Jahrtausende vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, vor der christlichen Zeitrechnung, dann haben die Menschen nicht nur die Fähigkeiten besessen, die schon in Trümmern waren zu der Zeit, als solche Dinge entstanden sind, sondern sie haben noch höhere Fähigkeiten besessen. Wenn ein Mensch der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Kultur Silber gesagt hat, so hat er zunächst nicht dasjenige gemeint, was wir meinen, wenn wir Silber sagen. Wenn der Mensch in seiner damaligen Sprache das Wort gebraucht hat, das für ihn Silber bedeutet hat, so hat er das ganz anders angewendet. Solch ein Mensch hat innere Fähigkeiten gehabt, und er hat eine gewisse Art der Kraftwirksamkeit gemeint, die sich nicht bloß in einem Stückchen Silber findet, sondern die sich im Grunde über die ganze Erde ausbreitet. Er wollte sagen, wir leben in Gold, wir leben in Kupfer, wir leben in Silber. Gewisse Arten von Kräften hat er gemeint, die da leben, und die insbesondere stark ihm entgegenströmten vom Monde. Und das hat er im gröbsten materiellen Sinne sensitiv, fein auch in dem Stückchen Silber empfunden. Er hat wirklich dieselben Kräfte vom Monde ausströmend, aber auch auf der ganzen Erde gefunden, und besonders ins Materielle umgesetzt in dem Stückchen Silber. Nun, der heutige aufgeklärte Mensch sagt: Ja, Mond — der leuchtet so silberweiß, da hat man halt geglaubt, daß er aus Silber besteht. — So war es nicht, sondern ein heute verlorengegangenes, inneres Seelenerlebnis hatte man beim Mond, was in der ganzen Erdensphäre als Kraft lebte, und — ins Materielle umgesetzt — bei dem Stückchen Silber. Es mußte also die Kraft, die im Silber steckt, gewissermaßen über die ganze Erde ausgebreitet sein. Heute sieht das der Mensch natürlich als einen kompletten Blödsinn an, wenn man ihm das sagt, und dennoch ist es nicht im Sinne der heutigen Wissenschaft ein kompletter Unsinn. Es ist gar kein Unsinn, durchaus kein Unsinn, denn ich will Ihnen eines sagen, was heute die Wissenschaft weiß, wenn sie es auch nicht immer sagt. Die heutige Wissenschaft weiß, daß etwas über vier Pfund Silber, fein verteilt, enthalten ist in einem Körper, aus dem Weltenmeere herausgeschnitten gedacht in Würfelform, der eine englische Seemeile lang ist, so daß im gesamten Weltenmeere, das die Erde umgibt, zwei Millionen Tonnen Silber, fein verteilt, enthalten sind. Dies ist einfach eine wissenschaftliche Wahrheit, die auch heute geprüft werden kann. Das Weltenmeer enthält zwei Millionen Tonnen Silber, fein verteilt, in äußerster Homöopathie, könnte man sagen. Es ist wirklich das Silber ausgebreitet über die Erde hin. Heute muß man das dadurch konstatieren, wenn man es mit normalem Wissen konstatiert, daß man eben Meerwasser schöpft und mit allen möglichen minuziösen Untersuchungen methodisch prüft; aber dann findet man eben mit den Mitteln der heutigen Wissenschaft, daß zwei Millionen Tonnen Silber im Weltenmeere enthalten sind. Diese zwei Millionen Tonnen Silber sind darinnen nicht etwa so enthalten, daß sie sich irgendwie aufgelöst haben oder ähnliches, sondern die gehören dem Weltenmeere an; die gehören zu seiner Natur und Wesenheit. Und das wußte die alte Weisheit; das wußte sie durch die noch vorhandenen feinen, sensitiven Kräfte, die vom alten Hellsehen herrühren. Und sie wußte, daß, wenn man sich die Erde denkt, man sich diese Erde nicht bloß zu denken hat so, wie die heutige Geologie sie sich denkt, sondern daß eben in dieser Erde in feinster Weise Silber aufgelöst ist.

Ich könnte jetzt weitergehen, könnte zeigen, wie auch Gold aufgelöst ist, wie alle diese Metalle — außer dem, daß sie materiell da oder dort abgelagert sind - in feiner Auflösung wirklich enthalten sind. Die alte Weisheit hatte also nicht Unrecht, als sie von Silber sprach. Das ist in der Erdensphäre enthalten. Als Kraft aber kannte man es, als gewisse Arten von Kraft. Andere Kräfte enthält die Silbersphäre, andere Kräfte die Goldsphäre und so weiter. Man wußte viel mehr noch von dem, was da als Silber ausgebreitet ist in der Erdensphäre; und man wußte, daß in diesem Silber die Kraft liegt, welche bewirkt Ebbe und Flut, weil eine gewisse belebende Kraft dieses ganzen Erdenkörpers in diesem Silber liegt, beziehungsweise identisch ist mit diesem Silber. Ebbe und Flut würden gar nicht entstehen; diese eigentümliche Bewegung der Erde wird ursprünglich angefacht von dem Silbergehalt. Das hat nichts mit dem Mond zu tun; aber der Mond hat mit derselben Kraft zu tun. Daher treten Ebbe und Flut in gewisser Beziehung mit den Mondbewegungen auf, weil beide, Mondbewegungen und Ebbe und Flut, von demselben Kräftesystem abhängig sind. Und die liegen in dem Silbergehalt des Weltenalls.

Man kann, selbst ohne hellseherische Erkenntnisse, bloß auf solche Dinge eingehen, und man wird mit einer Sicherheit des Beweises, der auf keinem Gebiete der Wissenschaft sonst erreicht wird als höchstens in der Mathematik, nachweisen können, daß es eine alte Wissenschaft gegeben hat, die solche Dinge wußte, die solche Dinge gut kannte. Und mit solchem Kennen und Können hing zusammen, was alte Weisheit war, jene Weisheit, die wirklich die Natur beherrschte, und die erst wiederum errungen werden muß durch Geistesforschung von der Gegenwart in die Zukunft hinein. Wir leben gerade in dem Zeitalter, in dem eine alte Art der Weisheit verlorengegangen ist, und eine neue Art der Weisheit erst heraufkommt. Was hatte diese alte Weisheit im Gefolge? Sie hatte das im Gefolge, was ich schon angedeutet habe. Man konnte wirklich, wenn man also die Geheimnisse des Weltenalls kannte, den eigenen Menschen tüchtiger machen. Denken Sie, durch äußere Mittel konnte man den Menschen tüchtiger machen! Also die Möglichkeit war vorhanden, daß ein Mensch einfach dadurch, daß er sich gewisse Substanzen herstellte und diese in entsprechender Menge zu sich nahm, Fähigkeiten sich aneignete, von denen wir heute mit Recht annehmen, daß der Mensch sie nur als angeborene Fähigkeiten haben kann, als Genie, als Talent und so weiter. Nicht dasjenige, was der Darwinismus phantastisch träumt, ist im Anfange der Erdenentwickelung, sondern solche Möglichkeit, die Natur zu beherrschen und dem Menschen selbst moralische und geistige Fähigkeiten zu geben aus der Behandlung der Natur heraus. Sie werden es nun begreiflich finden, daß man daher die Behandlung der Natur in ganz bestimmten Grenzen halten mußte: deshalb die Geheimnisse der urältesten Mysterien. Wer solche Erkenntnisse, die wirklich etwas mit diesen Naturgeheimnissen zu tun hatten, die nicht bloß Begriffe und Ideen und Empfindungen waren, nicht bloß Glaubensvorstellungen, wer solche Erkenntnisse erlangen sollte, der mußte zuerst sich als vollkommen dazu geeignet erweisen, nichts, aber auch gar nichts mit diesen Kenntnissen für sich selber machen zu wollen, sondern lediglich diese Erkenntnisse, diese Tüchtigkeiten, die er sich durch diese Erkenntnisse aneignete, im Dienste der sozialen Ordnung anzuwenden. Daher wurden diese Erkenntnisse, sagen wir, in den ägyptischen Mysterien so geheimgehalten. Die Vorbereitung bestand darinnen, daß derjenige, dem solche Erkenntnis übermittelt wurde, eine Garantie dafür abgab, daß er das Leben, das er vorher führte, in genau derselben Weise weiterführte, daß er nicht den geringsten Vorteil sich verschaffte, sondern die Tüchtigkeit, die er von jetzt ab erlangte durch die Behandlung der Natur, bloß in dem Dienst der sozialen Ordnung geltend machte. Unter dieser Voraussetzung hat man einzelne zu Eingeweihten werden lassen, die dann jene alte Kultur leiteten, deren Wunderwerke zu sehen sind und die nicht verstanden werden, weil man nicht weiß, woraus sie erflossen sind.

Aber die Menschheit hätte so niemals frei werden können. Man hätte sozusagen den Menschen durch Natureinflüsse zum Automaten machen müssen. Ein Zeitalter mußte heraufkommen, wo der Mensch durch bloße innere moralische Kräfte wirkte. So wird sozusagen verhüllt vor ihm die Natur, weil er sie entweiht hätte, indem in der neuen Zeit seine Triebe freigelassen wurden. Und am meisten sind seine Triebe freigelassen worden seit dem 14., 15. Jahrhundert. Daher verglimmt die alte Weisheit, da bleibt nur mehr eine Buchweisheit, die nicht verstanden wird. Denn niemand würde sich heute abhalten lassen, wenn er solche Dinge wirklich verstünde, wie nur den Satz, den ich Ihnen vorgelesen habe, diese Dinge zu seinem eigenen Vorteil zu gebrauchen. Das aber würde die schlimmsten Triebe in der menschlichen Gesellschaft hervorrufen, schlimmere Triebe, als jenes tastende Fortschreiten hervorbringt, das man heute wissenschaftliche Betriebe nennt, wo man so im Laboratorium, ohne daß man in die Dinge hineinsehen kann, herauskriegt: dieser Stoff berührt den andern in dieser Weise, — wo man, ohne in die Dinge hineinzusehen, etwas herauskriegt - nun, wie jetzt der Inhalt der Chemie ist. Man laviert so fort. Und Geisteswissenschaft wird erst wieder den Weg finden müssen hinein in die Geheimnisse der Natur. Aber zu gleicher Zeit wird sie eine soziale Ordnung begründen müssen, die ganz anders ist als die heutige soziale Ordnung, so daß der Mensch erkennen kann, was die Natur im Innersten zusammenhält, ohne deshalb zum Kampf der wildesten Triebe verführt zu werden.

Es ist Sinn und es ist Weisheit in der menschlichen Entwickelung, und das suchte ich jetzt schon durch eine ganze Reihe von Vorträgen Ihnen zu beweisen. Das, was geschieht in der Geschichte, geschieht — wenn auch oft durch so zerstörerische Kräfte als möglich — doch so, daß ein Sinn durch das geschichtliche Werden hindurchgeht, wenn es auch oftmals nicht der Sinn ist, den der Mensch sich erträumt, und wenn der Mensch auch viel leiden muß durch die Wege, welche der Sinn der Geschichte oftmals geht. Durch alles, was im Laufe der Zeit geschieht - es geschieht ja gewiß so, daß das Pendel manchmal nach dem Bösen, manchmal nach dem weniger Bösen ausschlägt -, werden aber doch durch dieses Ausschlagen gewisse Gleichgewichtslagen erreicht. Und so war denn auch bis ins 14., 15. Jahrhundert — wenigstens einzelnen — eine gewisse Summe von Naturkräften bekannt, deren Kenntnis verlorengegangen ist, weil die Menschen der neueren Zeit nicht die richtige Gesinnung dazu haben würden.

Sehen Sie, so schön ist das in dem Symbole beschrieben, das die Naturkraft in der ägyptischen Legende von der Isis ausdrückt. Dieses Isis-Bild, was für einen ergreifenden Eindruck macht es uns, wenn wir es uns vorstellen, wie es dasteht in Stein, aber — im Stein zugleich der Schleier von oben bis unten: das verschleierte Bild zu Sais. Und die Inschrift trägt es: Ich bin die Vergangenheit, die Gegenwart und die Zukunft; meinen Schleier hat noch kein Sterblicher gelüftet. - Das hat wiederum zu einer ungemein gescheiten — obwohl sehr gescheite Leute diese gescheite Erklärung aufgenommen haben, muß es doch einmal gesagt werden —, zu einer sehr gescheiten Erklärung geführt. Man sagt da: Die Isis drückt also aus das Symbolum für die Weisheit, die vom Menschen nie erreicht werden kann. Hinter diesem Schleier ist eine Wesenheit, die ewig verborgen bleiben muß, denn der Schleier kann nicht gelüftet werden. Und doch ist die Inschrift diese: Ich bin die Vergangenheit, die Gegenwart und die Zukunft; meinen Schleier hat noch kein Sterblicher gelüftet. — Alle die gescheiten Leute, die also sagen, man kann das Wesen nicht ergründen, sie sagen logisch ungefähr dasselbe, wie wenn einer sagt: Ich heiße Müller, meinen Namen wirst du nie erfahren. — Es ist ganz genau dasselbe, was Sie immer über dieses Bild reden hören, wie wenn einer sagt: Ich heiße Müller, meinen Namen wirst du nie erfahren. - Wenn man das: Ich bin die Vergangenheit, die Gegenwart und die Zukunft; meinen Schleier hat noch kein Sterblicher gelüftet — so auslegt, ist natürlich diese Auslegung ein völliger Unsinn. Denn es steht ja da, was die Isis ist: Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft - die dahinfließende Zeit! Wir werden morgen noch genauer über diese Dinge reden. Es ist die dahinfließende Zeit. Aber ganz etwas anderes, als was diese sogenannte geistvolle Erklärung will, ist ausgedrückt in den Worten: Meinen Schleier hat noch kein Sterblicher gelüfter. - Ausgedrückt ist, daß man sich dieser Weisheit nähern muß wie denjenigen Frauen, die den Schleier genommen hatten, deren Jungfräulichkeit bestehen bleiben mußte: in Ehrfurcht, mit einer Gesinnung, die alle egoistischen Triebe ausschließt. Das ist gemeint. Sie ist wie eine verschleierte Nonne, diese Weisheit früherer Zeit. Auf die Gesinnung wird hingedeutet durch die Sprache von diesem Schleier.

Und so handelte es sich darum, daß in den Zeiten, in denen uralte Weisheit lebendig war, die Menschen sich dieser Weisheit in der entsprechenden Weise näherten, respektive gar nicht zugelassen wurden, wenn sie sich ihr nicht in der entsprechenden Weise näherten. Aber der Mensch mußte sich selbst überlassen sein in der neueren Zeit. Da konnte er nicht diese Weisheit der alten Zeit, die Weisheitsformen der alten Zeit, haben. Die Kenntnis gewisser Naturkräfte ging verloren, jener Naturkräfte, die nicht erkannt werden können, ohne daß man sie im Inneren erfährt, ohne daß man sie innerlich zugleich lebt. Und in dem Zeitalter, in dem, wie ich Ihnen vor acht Tagen auseinandergesetzt habe, der Materialismus einen gewissen Höhepunkt erlangte, im 19. Jahrhundert, kam eine Naturkraft herauf, die in ihrer besonderen Eigenart dadurch charakterisiert ist, daß jeder heute sagt: Die Naturkraft haben wir, aber verstehen kann man sie nicht, für die Wissenschaft ist sie verborgen. — Sie wissen, wie gerade die Naturkraft der Elektrizität in menschliche Verwendung kam; und die elektrische Kraft ist eine solche, daß der Mensch sie durch seine normalen Kräfte im Inneren nicht erleben kann, daß sie im Äußeren bleibt. Und mehr, als man glaubt, ist dasjenige, was im 19. Jahrhundert groß geworden ist, durch die Elektrizität groß geworden. Es wäre ein leichtes, zu zeigen, wieviel, wie unendlich viel von der elektrischen Kraft abhängt in unserer gegenwärtigen Kultur, wieviel mehr noch in der Zukunft abhängen wird, wenn die elektrische Kraft durch die moderne Art, ohne in das Innere einzugehen, verwendet werden wird. Viel mehr noch! Aber gerade die elektrische Kraft ist eine solche, die an die Stelle der alten, gekannten Kraft gesetzt worden ist in der menschlichen Kulturentwickelung, und an der der Mensch heranreifen soll in moralischer Beziehung. Heute denkt er bei ihrer Anwendung nicht an irgendeine Moral. Weisheit ist in der fortlaufenden geschichtlichen Entwickelung der Menschheit. Der Mensch wird heranreifen, indem er eine Zeitlang noch tiefere Schädigungen — Schädigungen sind ja, wie unsere Tage zeigen, genügend da -, indem er noch tiefere Schädigungen in seinem niedern Ich-Träger, dem wüsten Egoismus, entfalten kann. Hätte der Mensch noch die alten Kräfte, so wäre das ganz ausgeschlossen. Gerade die elektrische Kraft als Kulturkraft macht das möglich; die Dampfkraft in einer gewissen Weise auch, aber da ist es noch weniger der Fall.

Nun steht die Sache so, daß, wie ich Ihnen früher einmal auseinandersetzte, das erste Siebentel unseres Kulturzeitraumes, der bis ins vierte Jahrtausend dauern wird, vorbei ist. Der Materialismus hat einen gewissen Hochpunkt erreicht; die sozialen Formen, in denen wir leben, die ja zu solch traurigen Ereignissen in unseren Jahren geführt haben, sind wirklich so, daß sie nicht mehr fünfzig Jahre die Menschheit tragen werden, ohne daß eine gründliche Anderung der menschlichen Seelen geschieht. Das elektrische Zeitalter ist für den, der die Weltentwickelung geistig durchschaut, zu gleicher Zeit eine Aufforderung, eine geistige Vertiefung, eine wirkliche geistige Vertiefung zu suchen. Denn zu jener Kraft, die unbekannt im Äußeren bleibt für die Sinnesbeobachtung, muß die geistige Kraft hinzukommen in die Seelen, die im tiefsten Inneren so verborgen ruht wie die elektrischen Kräfte, die auch erst erweckt werden müssen. Denken Sie sich, wie geheimnisvoll die elektrische Kraft ist; sie wurde erst durch Galvani, Volta aus ihren geheimen Verborgenheiten herausgeholt. So geheim verborgen ruht auch dasjenige, was in den menschlichen Seelen sitzt, und was die Geisteswissenschaft erforscht. Beide müssen zueinander kommen wie Nord- und Südpol. Und so wahr, wie die elektrische Kraft heraufgezogen ist als die in der Natur verborgene Kraft, so wahr wird heraufziehen die Kraft, die in der Geisteswissenschaft gesucht wird als die in der Seele verborgene Kraft, die dazugehört; wenn auch heute noch vielfach die Menschen vor dem, was Geisteswissenschaft will, so stehen — nun, wie ungefähr einer gestanden haben würde in der Zeit, wo eben Galvani, Volta die Frösche präpariert und bemerkt hatten an dem Zucken des Schenkels, daß da eine Kraft wirkt in diesem zuckenden Froschschenkel. Hat da die Wissenschaft gewußt, daß in diesem Froschschenkel alles lag von Berührungselektrizität, alles, was heute an Elektrizität bekannt ist? Denken Sie sich in die Zeit hinein, wo Galvani in seinem einfachen Versuchshaus gewesen ist und seinen Froschschenkel zum Fensterhaken hinaushängt, und dieser zu zucken beginnt, und er zum ersten Male dies feststellte! Es handelt sich da nicht um Elektrizität, nicht wahr, die erregt ist, sondern um Berührungselektrizität. Als Galvani das zum ersten Male feststellte, konnte er da annehmen, mit der Kraft, mit der da der Froschschenkel angezogen wird, wird man einmal Eisenbahnen über die Erde befördern, mit der wird man einmal den Gedanken um den Erdball herumkreisen lassen? Es ist noch nicht so sehr lange her, daß Galvani an seinen Froschschenkeln diese Kraft beobachtet hat. Einen, der dazumal schon sich versprochen hätte, was alles aus dieser Erkenntnis fließen wird, den hätte man gewiß für einen Narren angesehen. So kam es denn auch so, daß man heute denjenigen für einen Narren ansieht, der die ersten Anfänge einer geistigen Wissenschaft darzustellen hat. Es wird eine Zeit kommen, wo dasjenige, was von Geisteswissenschaft ausgeht, ebenso bedeutsam sein wird für die Welt aber jetzt die moralische, geistig-seelische Welt - wie dasjenige, was von dem Galvani-Froschschenkel ausgegangen ist, für die materielle Welt, für die materielle Kultur. So vollziehen sich die Fortschritte in der Menschheitsentwickelung. Nur wenn man auf solche Dinge achtet, dann entwickelt man auch den Willen, mitzugehen mit dem, was erst in den Anfängen sein kann. Hat die andere Kraft, die elektrische Kraft, die aus ihrer Verborgenheit gezogen worden ist, bloß eine äußere materielle Kulturbedeutung und nur mittelbar eine Bedeutung für die moralische Welt, so wird dasjenige, was aus der Geisteswissenschaft kommt, die größte soziale Bedeutung haben. Denn die sozialen Ordnungen der Zukunft werden geregelt werden durch das, was Geisteswissenschaft den Menschen geben kann. Und alles dasjenige, was äußere materielle Kultur sein wird, wird in mittelbarer Weise ebenfalls von dieser Geisteswissenschaft angeregt werden. Darauf kann ich heute am Schlusse nur hinweisen.

Wir wollen dann morgen das Bild des Faust, das wir heute gesehen haben, der noch halb in der alten, aber halb schon in der neueren Zeit drinnen steht, wie ich Ihnen heute gesagt habe, zu einer Art von Weltanschauungsbild noch erweitern.

The Faust Problem

after a performance of the study scene from Faust I

Today, I would like to follow up on what has just been presented in order to gain a unity that will then make it possible to arrive at a more comprehensive view tomorrow.

We have seen how the transition from the 14th 15th to the 16th and 17th centuries represents an extraordinarily significant turning point in the entire development of humanity, the transition from the Greco-Latin age to our fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the epoch in which we now live, from which our impulses for all knowledge and also for all action flow, the epoch that will last until the fourth millennium. Now, from everything you know about Goethe's Faust and about the connection between this Goethean Faust with the Faust figure as it originates from the 16th-century legend, you will understand that both this Faust figure from the 16th century and what Goethe's view of it has formed are intimately connected with all the transitional impulses that have brought about the new age in a spiritual sense and thus also in an outward, material sense. Now, in Goethe's case, this problem of the advent of the new age and the continuing influence of the impulses of the new age was so powerful that he was completely inspired during the sixty years he spent working on his “Faust” by the question: What are the most important tasks, the most important attitudes of modern people? And Goethe was truly able to look back on the past age, which even science today knows so little about, that past age which came to an end in the 14th and 15th centuries. What history reports — I have often said this — about the mood of people's souls, about human abilities and needs in earlier centuries, is basically something that is very much " gray theory." The souls of people in earlier centuries, the centuries that preceded the Faust era, looked very different from the souls of people today, the souls of the current epoch of humanity. And Goethe is so right to embody a character a personality in his “Faust” who looks back on the state of mind of people in earlier centuries, in centuries long past, and who at the same time looks forward to the tasks of the present, to the tasks of the future.

As Faust first looks back on what preceded his age, he can basically only see the ruins of a culture that has come to an end. We must first always consider the Faust of the 16th century, who is a historical figure who really lived and who then became part of folk legend. This Faust still lived in the ancient sciences, which he had acquired, lived in magic, alchemy, and mysticism, which was the wisdom of earlier centuries, namely the wisdom of the time preceding Christianity, but which was already in thorough decline in the time in which the historical Faust of the 16th century lived. What was regarded in Faust's was regarded as alchemy, magic, and mysticism by those among whom Faust lived was already quite bizarre stuff, stuff that was based on traditions, on legacies from earlier times, but which was no longer understood. The wisdom that lived in it was no longer known. There were various sound formulas from ancient times, various correct insights from ancient times, but they were no longer well understood. So, in this respect, the historical Faust was placed in an age of declining spiritual life. And Goethe continually mixes what the historical Faust experienced with what he shaped into the Faust of the 18th century, the Faust of the 19th century, and indeed the Faust of many centuries to come. That is why we see Goethe's Faust looking back to the old magic, to the old kind of wisdom, mysticism, which did not pursue chemistry in today's materialistic sense, which wanted to connect with a spiritual world through its dealings with nature, but no longer had the knowledge to connect with the spiritual world in the right way of earlier times. What was considered medicine in centuries long past is not as foolish as today's science often wants to make it out to be, but the actual wisdom contained within it has been lost, and it was already partly lost in Faust's time. Goethe knew this well. But he knew it not only with his mind, he knew it with his heart, he knew it with all the powers of his soul that are attached to the welfare and salvation of humanity and that are particularly relevant to the salvation of humanity. Goethe wanted to answer the riddles that arose for him from this, so that one could recognize how, going ever further, one could arrive at other wisdoms relating to the spiritual world that were just as suitable for modern times as the ancients had been able to do, whose wisdom was bound to fade away as humanity progressed. That is why he lets his Faust become a magician. Faust has surrendered to magic like the Faust of the 16th century. But he remains unsatisfied for the simple reason that the actual wisdom of ancient magic had already faded away. Ancient medicine also stemmed from this wisdom. All prescription knowledge and all pharmacology were connected with ancient chemistry, alchemy.

Now, when one touches on such a question, one immediately touches on the deepest secrets of humanity, insofar as these secrets imply that, in truth, one cannot heal diseases without also being able to create them. The ways to cure diseases are also the ways to create them. We will hear shortly how the principle prevailed in ancient wisdom that the healer could also be the creator of diseases, and how, for this reason, the art of healing was thought of in ancient times in connection with a deeply moral worldview. But we will also see shortly how little could have developed in those ancient times what we now call the newer freedom of human development, which actually only began in our fifth, post-Greco-Roman period. -Roman period. We will see what this would have been like if the old wisdom had remained. But in all areas, this wisdom had to perish so that human beings would have to start from scratch, so to speak, but in such a way that they could strive for freedom through knowledge and action at the same time. He could not have done this under the influence of ancient wisdom. In such times of transition as the one in which Faust lived, the old is in decline; the new has not yet arrived. This gives rise to moods such as those we see in Faust in the scene that precedes the one we have presented today. In this scene, we see very clearly how Faust is out of step with the age in which old wisdom still existed, but old wisdom that was no longer fully understood. We see how Faust, accompanied by his famulus Wagner, goes out into the countryside from his cell, how he first observes the people celebrating Easter outdoors in the countryside, how he himself gets into the Easter spirit. But we immediately see how he does not want to accept the homage offered to him by the people. An old farmer appears, approaches Faust, and pays homage to him because the people believe that Faust, the son of an old adept, an old healer, is also an important healer who can bring healing and blessings to the people. An old farmer approaches Faust and says:

Truly, it is very well done,
That you appear on this joyful day;
For you have been kind to us
In bad times!
Many a one stands here alive,
Whom your father most recently
Rescued from the hot fever,
When he set his sights on the plague.
Even then, you, a young man,
Went to every hospital,
Many a corpse was carried away,
But you came out healthy;
You passed many a hard test;
The helper was helped by the helper above.

This is what the old farmer says, recalling how Faust is connected to ancient medicine, which was not only concerned with healing physical illnesses, but also with healing the moral ills of the people. Faust knows that he no longer lived in an age when ancient wisdom was truly helpful to humanity, but already in a time of decline. And in his soul there glimmers modesty, but at the same time despondency over the untruth he actually faces, and he says:

Only a few steps more up to that stone,
Here we want to rest from our journey.
Here I often sat alone, lost in thought,
And tormented myself with prayer and fasting.
Rich in hope, firm in faith,
With tears, sighs, and wringing of hands,
I thought I could force the end of that plague
From the Lord of Heaven.
The crowd's applause now sounds like mockery to me.
Oh, if only you could read my heart,
How little father and son
Were worthy of such glory!
My father was a dark man of honor,
Who pondered nature and its sacred circles,
In honesty, but in his own way,
With capricious effort.
Who, in the company of adepts,
Locked himself in the black kitchen
And, following endless recipes,
Poured together the repulsive.
There was a red lion, a bold suitor,
Married in the lukewarm bath of the lily,
And then both of them, with open flames,
From one bridal chamber to another.

So Goethe studied very well how things were done in those days, how the “red lion” — mercury oxide, sulfur mercury — was treated, how the various chemicals were mixed together and left to their processes, how medicines were made from them. But all this no longer corresponded to the old wisdom. Goethe also knows the idiom. People used to depict what they wanted to represent in images. The combination of substances was depicted as a marriage. That is why he says:

Tormented from one bridal chamber to another.
Then appeared in bright colors
The young queen in the glass —

That was an artistic expression. Just as in today's chemistry, artistic expressions are used, so in those days, when certain substances had reached a certain state and color, they were called “the young queen.”

Here was the medicine that killed patients,

They died then as they die today with many medicines.

Here was the medicine that killed patients,
And no one asked: who was cured?
So with hellish concoctions
In these valleys, these mountains
We raged far worse than the plague.
I myself gave the poison to thousands,
They withered away, and I must live to see
That the insolent murderers are praised.

This is Faust's self-knowledge. So Faust now stands before himself, he whom you know to have delved into ancient magical wisdom in order to penetrate the secrets of nature and the spirit. But through all this he has become spiritualized. Unlike Wagner, his famulus, who is satisfied with the newer wisdom that rests in writings, that rests in letters, Faust cannot accept this. Wagner is a personality who places far fewer demands on wisdom and on life. And when Faust wants to dream himself into nature in order to find the spirit of nature, Wagner thinks only of the spirit that flows to him from theories, from parchments, from books. He calls what comes over Faust “whimsical hours”:

I myself have often had whimsical hours,

— says Wagner —

But I have never felt such an urge.
One can easily satisfy one's eyes with forests and fields,
I will never envy the bird's wings.

He never wants to fly out with the bird to get to know the world!

How differently the joys of the mind carry us
From book to book, from page to page!
Winter nights become sweet and beautiful,
A blissful life warms all limbs,
And alas! If you unroll a worthy parchment,
The whole sky descends upon you.

A complete bookworm, a complete theorist!

So, after the people have left, they now stand there: the one who wants to enter the sources of life, who wants to connect his own being with the mysterious forces of nature in order to experience these mysterious forces of nature: Faust — and the one who sees nothing but the external material life and that which is recorded in books through matter: Wagner. One does not need to think long about what has been going on inside Faust, through all that he has experienced up to this moment, as Goethe presents it to us; but after everything we encounter in Faust, we can say that his inner being has, so to speak, been transformed and reversed, that a real development of the soul has taken place in Faust, that he has attained a certain inner vision, otherwise he would not have been able to summon the Earth Spirit, who surges up and down in a storm of activity. Faust has acquired a certain ability to see the outer world not only in terms of its outer appearances, but also to see the spirit that weaves and lives in everything. Then a poodle jumps towards them, Faust and Wagner, from a distance. The way they both see the poodle, an ordinary poodle, the way Faust sees it and the way Wagner sees it, characterizes the two men completely. After Faust has dreamed himself into the living spirit of nature, he sees the poodle:

Do you see the black dog roaming through the seeds and stubble?

Wagner: I saw him long ago, but he didn't seem important to me.

Faust: Look at him closely! What do you think this animal is?

Wagner: A poodle, who in his own way is struggling to keep up with his master.

The poodle circles around us.

Faust: Do you notice how, in wide snail-like circles,
it chases us, coming ever closer?
And if I am not mistaken, a whirlwind of fire
Follows in its tracks.

Faust sees not only the poodle, but something stirs within Faust; he sees something that belongs to the poodle, like a spirit. Faust sees this. Wagner, of course, does not see it. With the outer eye, one cannot see what Faust sees.

Wagner: I see nothing but a black poodle;
It may well be an optical illusion for you.

Faust: It seems to me that it is magically drawing quiet snares
Around our feet for a future bond.

Wagner: I see him jumping around us uncertainly and fearfully,
Because instead of his master, he sees two strangers.

Faust thus sees something spiritual in this simple apparition. Let us note this. Faust, his inner being moved by a certain spiritual connection even with this poodle, now goes into his study. Now, of course, Goethe dramatically depicts the poodle as it is; that is also good, the drama must depict it that way. But basically, we are dealing with something that Faust experiences inwardly. And the way this scene unfolds, the way Faust experiences something inwardly here, is masterfully expressed by Goethe in every word. Faust and Wagner have remained outside until nightfall, when the external light no longer has any effect, when only twilight has had an effect. In the twilight, Faust sees what he wants to see spiritually. Now he comes home again to his cell. Now he is alone with himself. A man like Faust, after going through all this, left alone with himself, is able to experience self-knowledge, that is, the life of the spirit within his own self. He expresses how, in a sense, his innermost being has become active, but active in a spiritual way:

I have left the fields and meadows,
Covered by a deep night,
With a foreboding, holy dread
That awakens the better soul within us.
Wild impulses are now asleep
With every impetuous action;
Human love is stirring,
The love of God is now stirring.

The poodle growls. But let's be clear: these are inner experiences, even the poodle's growl is an inner experience, even if it is dramatically expressed outwardly. Faust has become involved with decaying magic, with Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles is not a spirit who leads him into the progressive, regular spiritual forces; Mephistopheles is the spirit that Faust must first overcome, who is assigned to him so that he may overcome him, who is assigned to him for testing, not for instruction. This means that we now see Faust standing before us, on the one hand wanting to enter the divine-spiritual world that carries world development forward, and on the other hand with the forces in his soul active that pull him down into the ordinary life of instincts that distracts people from spiritual striving. Just when the sacred stirs in his soul, it mocks him; the opposing instincts mock him. This is now wonderfully depicted in the form of external events: Faust, striving, as it were, toward the divine-spiritual with all his knowledge, and his own instincts growling against it, just as the materialistic sense of man growls against spiritual striving. And when Faust says, “Be quiet, Pudel! Don't growl,” he is basically calming himself down. And now Faust speaks, that is, in this case, Goethe lets Faust speak in a wonderful way. Only when one considers the individual words does one discover how wonderfully Goethe understands the inner life of human beings in spiritual development:

Ah, when in our narrow cell
The lamp burns brightly again,
Then it becomes bright in our bosom,
In the heart that knows itself —

in the heart that seeks self-knowledge, that is, the spirit within itself.

Reason begins to speak again —.

A meaningful sentence! Those who undergo spiritual development, who are brought to their knees by their lives, know that reason is not just something dead inside, they know not only intellectual reason, they know how alive reason becomes, how inner spiritual weaving becomes reason and truly speaks. This is not merely a poetic image:

Reason begins to speak again,
And hope begins to blossom again.

Reason speaks, begins to speak again about the past that has remained alive from the past, and hope begins to blossom again, that is, we find our will transformed so that we know we will pass through the gate of death as spiritually alive beings. The future and the past are wonderfully intertwined. Goethe wants Faust to say that Faust knows how to find the inner life of the spirit in self-knowledge.

One longs for the streams of life,
Ah! for the source of life.

And now Faust seeks to come closer to what he longs for, to the sources of life. First, he seeks a path: the path of religious elevation. He reaches for the New Testament. And the way he now reaches for the New Testament is a wonderful representation of Goethe's wise drama. He reaches for the one that contains the deepest words of wisdom of modern times, the Gospel of John. He wants to translate it into his beloved German. It is significant that Goethe chooses the moment of translation. Those who know the workings of deep world and spirit beings know that when wisdom is transferred from one language to another, all the spirits of confusion appear, all spirits of confusion intervene. In the border areas of life, forces that oppose human development and human salvation are particularly evident. Goethe deliberately chooses translation in order to place the spirit of perversity, indeed the spirit of lies, which is still present in the poodle, alongside the spirit of truth. If one responds to the feelings and sensations that can flow from such a scene, then the wonderful spiritual depth that lives in these scenes becomes apparent. All the temptations that I have just characterized, which come from what is in the poodle, which rear up to distort the truth into untruth, all of this continues to have an effect and influences an action of Faust that gives one ample opportunity to distort truth into untruth. And how little one actually notices that Goethe intended this is still shown today by the various interpreters of Faust, for what do these interpreters of Faust say about this scene? Well, you can read it. It says: Goethe is a man of the outer life, words are not enough for him, he must improve the Gospel of John, he must find a more correct translation, not: In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, but: In the beginning was the deed. Faust discovers this after much hesitation. This is a profound Goethe wisdom.

This wisdom is not Faustian wisdom, it is genuine Wagnerian wisdom, true Wagnerian wisdom! Just like the wisdom that is emphasized so often, that Faust later says such beautiful words to Gretchen about religious life: Who can name him, who can confess him, the all-encompassing one who holds and carries everything, and so on — that is Gretchen's wisdom! What Faust says to Gretchen has been quoted over and over again, and it is repeatedly presented as profound wisdom by the gentlemen who quote it, the learned gentlemen:

Who may name him?
And who confess:
I believe him?
Who can feel
And bring themselves
To say: I do not believe in him?
The all-encompassing one,
The all-sustaining one,
Does he not embrace and sustain
You, me, himself?
Does the sky not arch above us?
Does the earth not lie firmly beneath us?
And do not eternal stars rise up, looking kindly down?
Do I not look you in the eye,
And does not everything
Push toward your head and heart...
And so on.

What Faust says here is often presented as profound wisdom! Well, if Goethe had meant it as the deepest wisdom, he would not have put it into Faust's mouth at the moment when he wants to teach sixteen-year-old Gretchen. It is Gretchen's wisdom! One only has to take things seriously. The scholars have simply been taken in. They have taken what is Gretchen's wisdom for deep philosophy. And so what appears in Faust as a Bible translation is taken for particularly profound wisdom, while Goethe wants to portray nothing other than how truth and error toss and turn a person when he takes on such a task. Goethe has portrayed these two souls of Faust deeply, deeply, especially in this Bible translation.

It is written: “In the beginning was the Word!”

We know that this is the Greek Logos. It really is written in the Gospel of John. In contrast, what is symbolized by the poodle rebels in Faust, not wanting him to arrive at the deeper meaning of the Gospel of John. Why is it precisely the Word, the Logos, chosen by the writer of the Gospel of John? Because the writer of the Gospel of John wants to emphasize that what is most important in human evolution on earth, what really makes humans human in the external sense, did not develop gradually, but was there from the very beginning. What distinguishes humans from all other beings? By the fact that he can speak, whereas all other beings — animals, plants, minerals — cannot. The materialist believes that man only came to the word, that is, to language, to the Logos, which is permeated by thought, after he had undergone animal development. The Gospel of John takes the matter deeper and says: No, in the beginning was the Word. This means that human development is originally predisposed; humans are not merely the highest point of the animal world in the materialistic-Darwinian sense, but in the very first intentions of Earth's development, in the very beginning, in the beginning, there was the Word. And only through this can humans develop an ego on Earth, which animals cannot achieve, because the Word is interwoven with human development. The word stands for the human ego. But the spirit that accompanies Faust, the spirit of untruth, rebels against this truth, and he must descend deeper; he cannot yet understand the whole deep wisdom that lies in the words of John.

Here I already falter!

But it is actually the poodle, the dog within him, and what is in the poodle that makes him falter. He does not rise higher, on the contrary, he descends deeper.

Here I already falter! Who will help me on?
I cannot possibly value the word so highly,
I must translate it differently,
If I am rightly enlightened by the spirit.

As he sees Mephistopheles approaching him, he believes that he is enlightened by the spirit; but he is darkened by the spirit of darkness and descends.

It is written: “In the beginning was the meaning!”

This is no higher than the word. Meaning also prevails in the lives of animals, as we can easily prove, but animals do not come to human words. Man is capable of meaning because he has an astral body. Faust descends deeper into himself, from the I into the astral body.

... “In the beginning was the sense.”
Consider well the first line,
That your pen may not be hasty!

He believes he is rising higher, but he is descending deeper.

Is it the sense that works and creates everything?

No, he descends even deeper from the astral body to the denser, material etheric body and writes:

“In the beginning was the power!”

Power is that which lives in the etheric body.

But even as I write this down,
something warns me not to stop there.
The spirit helps me!

The spirit that is in the poodle!

Suddenly I see the answer
And write confidently: “In the beginning was the deed!”

And now he has arrived at complete materialism, now he is at the physical body through which the outer deed is performed.

Word (Logos) — I
Mind — Astral body
Power — Etheric body
Deed — Physical body

So you have Faust alive and weaving in a piece of self-knowledge. He mistranslates the Bible because the various members of the human being, which we have discussed so often — I, astral body, etheric body, physical body — interact chaotically in him through the Mephistophelean spirit. Now we also see how these drives operate, for the outward barking of the poodle is what rebels against the truth within him. He cannot yet grasp the wisdom of Christianity in his knowledge. We see this in the way he connects word, meaning, power, and deed. But the urge, the impulse toward Christianity, already lives within him. By bringing to life what lives as Christ within him, he defeats the opposing spirit. He first tries to do this with what he has received from ancient magic. The spirit does not retreat; it does not reveal itself in its true form. He invokes the four elements and their spirits: salamanders, sylphs, undines, and gnomes; none of this disturbs the spirit that dwells in the poodle. But when he invokes the Christ figure: the blasphemously pierced, poured out through all the heavens — then the poodle must show its true form.

All of this is basically self-knowledge, a self-knowledge that Goethe makes very clear. What happens? A wandering scholar appears! Faust truly practices self-knowledge; he is basically facing himself. First, the wild instincts that rebelled against the truth worked in the form of the poodle, and now, in a sense, he becomes clear, clear-unclear! The wandering scholar stands before him. But it is only Faust's other self. He himself has become little more than a wandering scholar with all the errors that are inherent in the wandering scholar; only now, as he gets to know his instincts more precisely through his connection with the spiritual world, the wandering scholar, that is, his own self as he has appropriated it so far, confronts him in a cruder and more thorough way. Faust has learned like a scholar, only then he surrendered to magic, and through magic, scholarly wisdom has been demonized. What has become of the good old Faust, when he was still a wandering scholar, is only because he added the old magic to it. The wandering scholar is still within him: he confronts him in a transformed form. It is only his own self. This wandering scholar is also his own self. The struggle to get rid of everything that confronts him as his own self is now contained in the further scene.

Goethe always tried to show only Faust's other self in the various characters with whom Faust appears, so that Faust would recognize himself more and more. Perhaps some of the listeners remember that in earlier lectures I discussed how Wagner himself is also in Faust, how Wagner is also just another self of Faust. Mephistopheles, too, is only another self. All self-knowledge! Self-knowledge is practiced through knowledge of the world. But all this is not yet clear spiritual knowledge in Faust; all this is contained in Faust in an unclear, dull, one might say, spiritual clairvoyance still impaired by old atavistic clairvoyance. It is not clarified. It is not clear knowledge, it is dreamlike knowledge. This is shown to us in the way the dream spirits, who are actually the group souls of all those beings who accompany Mephistopheles, beguile Faust, and how he finally awakens. And here Goethe has Faust say quite clearly and distinctly:

Have I been deceived again?
Does the spirit-filled urge disappear,
That a dream lied to me about the devil,
And that a poodle sprang from me?

Goethe already uses the method of repeatedly pointing to the truth. That he actually means it as Faust's inner experience is clearly expressed in these four lines. This scene also shows us how Goethe struggled to understand the transition from the old era to the new one in which he himself lived, from the fourth post-Atlantean period to the fifth post-Atlantean period. The boundary is in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Those who live in today's way of thinking cannot, unless they undertake special studies, form a good idea of the development of the soul in past centuries, as I said earlier. And in Faust's time, only the ruins remained. We often find that people today do not want to approach the newer spiritual research that we are striving for, but want to rehash the old wisdom. How many believe that by rehashing what the ancients possessed, they will thereby attain a deeper, magical-mystical wisdom about nature! Two absurdities, I might say, are very close to all spiritual striving of human beings. The first is that people buy and study old, ancient books and now value them more highly than newer science. They usually value them more highly simply because they do not understand them, because the language can no longer be understood. That is one piece of nonsense, that people keep coming back to the gibberish that the content of old books has become when they want to talk about spiritual research. The other is that people want to give old names to newer endeavors and thus sanctify them. Look at some of those who call themselves occult or secret or other societies. Their whole endeavor is to date themselves as far back as possible, to explain as much as possible about a legendary past, to indulge in old names. That is the second piece of nonsense. There is no need to go along with all this if one really understands the needs and impulses of our time and the necessary future. You can open any book from the time when traditions still existed, so to speak. From the way it is presented, you can see that there were legacies, traditions of an ancient primordial wisdom that humanity possessed, but that this wisdom had fallen into decay. The way it is expressed, everything is still there, even quite late in the day.

I have a book here that was printed in 1740, so even in the 18th century. I want to read a short passage from it, a passage that you can be sure that many who seek spiritual science today, when they come across such a passage, will say: Abysmal, profound wisdom! Oh, what is contained in it! — There are even some who believe that they understand such a passage. Well, I will first read to you the passage I mean:

"The king's crown shall be of pure gold, and a chaste bride shall be wedded to him. Therefore, if you want to work through our bodies, take the greedy gray wolf, who is subject to the warlike Mars because of his name, but who is by birth a child of old Saturn, who is found in the valleys and mountains of the world, and who is possessed by great hunger, and throw him to the king's body so that he may have his sustenance."

In ancient times, these chemical processes that were established were named, and people spoke of certain chemical processes, which Faust also alludes to when he speaks of how a red lion is married to the lily in the glass, and so on. It is not proper to mock these things for the simple reason that the way chemistry speaks today will sound just the same to people who come later as it does to us. But we should be clear that this also arose even in a very late period of decline. Reference is made to a “gray wolf.” This “gray wolf” refers to a certain ore that is found everywhere in the mountains and is subjected to a certain procedure. “King” was the name given to a certain state of substances. And what is told here is supposed to refer to a certain handling. The gray ore was taken and treated in a certain way. This gray ore was called the “greedy gray wolf,” the other was called the “golden king,” where the gold, after being treated in a certain way, was the “golden king.” And a connection was formed. The author describes this connection as follows: “And when he devoured the king ...”

So what happens is that the “greedy gray wolf,” that is, the gray ore found in the mountains, has merged with the golden king—which is a certain state of gold after it has been chemically treated. The gold has disappeared into the gray ore. He describes it as follows: “And when he has devoured the king, make a great fire and throw the wolf into it...” So the wolf that has eaten the gold, the golden king, is thrown into the fire. “When it is completely burned, the king will be redeemed.” The gold reappears!

“When this has happened three times, the lion will have overcome the wolf and will find nothing more to devour, and then our body will be complete at the beginning of our work.”

So he does something in this way. If one wanted to know what he is doing, one would have to describe these procedures in great detail, namely how the golden king is made; but that cannot be described here. These procedures are no longer carried out today. But what does the man expect to gain? He expects something that is not entirely out of the blue, for he has now done something. Why did he actually do that? That is to say, the person who had this printed probably did not do it himself, but copied it from old books. But why was this done at a time when people still understood these things? You can see this from the following:

“And know that this alone is the right way to do this, to cleanse our bodies thoroughly, for the lion cleanses itself through the blood of the wolf, and the tincture of the blood rejoices wonderfully with the tincture of the lion, for their blood is closely related in kinship.”

So now he praises what he has created. He has obtained a kind of medicine.

“And when the lion has had its fill, its spirit has become stronger than before, and its eyes give off a proud gleam like the bright sun.”

All of this is the property of what he has in the retort!

"His inner being is capable of doing much, and is useful for all that is required of him, and when he is brought to his readiness, the children of men, burdened with serious illnesses and many plagues, thank him; the ten lepers run after him and desire to drink from the blood of his soul, and all who who have infirmities rejoice greatly in his spirit; for whoever drinks from this golden fountain feels a complete renewal of nature, the removal of evil, the strengthening of the blood, the power of the heart, and perfect health of all limbs."

You see, it is implied that we are dealing with a medicine, but it is also sufficiently implied here that this has something to do with what appears to be a moral characteristic of human beings. For, of course, if someone who is healthy takes it in the appropriate amount, then what he describes will occur. That is what he means, and that is how it was with the ancients, who still understood something about these things.

“For whoever drinks from this golden fountain feels a complete renewal of nature.”

So, through this art he described, he strove for a tincture that would bring real vitality into people:

“Strength of the heart, vigor of the blood, and perfect health of all limbs, whether internal or external: for it opens all nerves and pores, so that evil may be expelled and good may dwell peacefully in its place.”

I have read this first to show how even in these ruins of ancient wisdom there is still a trace of what people aspired to in ancient times. The aim was to stimulate the body by external means derived from nature, that is, to attain certain abilities not only through inner, moral striving, but also through means derived from nature itself. Hold on to that for a moment, because it leads us to something important that distinguishes our era from earlier periods. Today, it is perfectly acceptable to mock the old superstitions, because then one is considered a clever person in the eyes of the whole world, whereas otherwise one is not considered a clever person if one sees something reasonable in ancient knowledge. Something that has even been lost to humanity and had to be lost for certain reasons, because in this striving of ancient times, people could never have attained freedom. But you see, in old books that date back to earlier times than this tome, which belongs to a very late period of decline, you will find what you know well: sun and gold with a common symbol, with this symbol: O; you will find moon and silver with this symbol: (. For people today, this symbol is applied to gold and sun, and this . It is complete nonsense, as in literature, which often calls itself “esoteric” literature, to talk about these things, because most of the time one does not have the means to recognize why in ancient times the sun and gold and the moon and silver were designated with the same symbol.

Let us start with the moon and silver with this symbol: C. If we go back to the time, say, a few millennia before the Mystery of Golgotha, before the Christian era, then people not only possessed the abilities that were already in ruins at the time when such things arose, but they also possessed even higher abilities. When a person of Egyptian-Chaldean culture said silver, they did not initially mean what we mean when we say silver. When people used the word that meant silver to them in their language at that time, they applied it in a completely different way. Such people had inner abilities, and they meant a certain kind of power that is not only found in a piece of silver, but which basically spreads over the whole earth. They wanted to say that we live in gold, we live in copper, we live in silver. They meant certain kinds of forces that live there and that flowed particularly strongly toward them from the moon. And they sensed this in the crudest material sense, finely also in the piece of silver. They really found the same forces emanating from the moon, but also all over the earth, and especially translated into the material in the piece of silver. Now, today's enlightened human being says: Yes, the moon — it shines so silvery white that people believed it was made of silver. — That was not the case, but rather, people had an inner soul experience with the moon that has been lost today, which lived as a force throughout the entire Earth sphere and — translated into the material world — in the piece of silver. So the power contained in silver had to be spread across the whole earth, so to speak. Today, of course, people consider this complete nonsense when they hear it, and yet it is not complete nonsense in the sense of today's science. It is not nonsense at all, not nonsense at all, because I want to tell you something that science knows today, even if it does not always say so. Modern science knows that a little over four pounds of silver, finely distributed, is contained in a body cut out of the world's oceans in the shape of a cube one nautical mile long, so that the entire world's oceans surrounding the earth contain two million tons of silver, finely distributed. This is simply a scientific truth that can be verified even today. The world's oceans contain two million tons of silver, finely distributed, in extreme homeopathy, one might say. It is really silver spread over the earth. Today, one must state this based on normal knowledge, that one simply scoops up seawater and methodically tests it with all kinds of meticulous examinations; but then, using the means of today's science, one finds that two million tons of silver are contained in the world's oceans. These two million tons of silver are not contained in such a way that they have somehow dissolved or anything like that, but rather they belong to the world's oceans; they belong to its nature and essence. And ancient wisdom knew this; it knew this through the still existing subtle, sensitive powers that originate from ancient clairvoyance. And it knew that when one thinks of the earth, one must not think of it merely as today's geology thinks of it, but that silver is dissolved in this earth in the most subtle way.

I could go on now, I could show how gold is also dissolved, how all these metals — except that they are materially deposited here and there — are really contained in fine dissolution. So ancient wisdom was not wrong when it spoke of silver. It is contained in the Earth sphere. But it was known as a force, as certain kinds of force. Other forces are contained in the silver sphere, other forces in the gold sphere, and so on. Much more was known about what is spread out as silver in the earth sphere; and it was known that this silver contains the force that causes the ebb and flow of the tides, because a certain life-giving force of the entire earth body lies in this silver, or rather is identical with this silver. Ebb and flow would not occur at all; this peculiar movement of the earth is originally fueled by the silver content. This has nothing to do with the moon; but the moon has to do with the same force. Therefore, ebb and flow occur in a certain relationship with the movements of the moon, because both, the movements of the moon and ebb and flow, depend on the same system of forces. And these depend on the silver content of the universe.

Even without clairvoyant knowledge, one can simply address such things and prove with a certainty of evidence that is not achieved in any other field of science except perhaps mathematics, that there was an ancient science that knew such things, that was well acquainted with such things. And connected with such knowledge and skill was what was ancient wisdom, that wisdom which truly ruled nature, and which must first be regained through spiritual research from the present into the future. We are living in an age in which an ancient form of wisdom has been lost and a new form of wisdom is just emerging. What did this ancient wisdom bring with it? It brought with it what I have already indicated. If one knew the secrets of the universe, one could truly make one's own people more capable. Do you think that external means could make people more capable? So the possibility existed that a person, simply by producing certain substances and consuming them in appropriate quantities, could acquire abilities that we today rightly assume can only be innate abilities, such as genius, talent, and so on. It is not what Darwinism fantastically dreams of that is at the beginning of the Earth's development, but rather the possibility of mastering nature and giving humans moral and spiritual abilities through the treatment of nature. You will now understand that the treatment of nature had to be kept within very specific limits: hence the secrets of the most ancient mysteries. Anyone who wanted to attain such knowledge, which really had something to do with these secrets of nature, which were not merely concepts and ideas and feelings, not merely beliefs, had to first prove themselves completely suitable, not absolutely nothing for themselves with this knowledge, but to apply these insights and the skills they acquired through them solely in the service of the social order. That is why these insights were kept so secret, for example, in the Egyptian mysteries. The preparation consisted in the person to whom such knowledge was imparted giving a guarantee that he would continue to live his life in exactly the same way as before, that he would not gain the slightest advantage for himself, but would use the skills he had acquired from then on through his treatment of nature solely in the service of the social order. Under this condition, individuals were allowed to become initiates, who then guided that ancient culture whose wonders can be seen but are not understood because their origins are unknown.

But humanity could never have become free in this way. It would have been necessary, so to speak, to turn human beings into automatons through the influences of nature. An age had to dawn in which human beings acted through their inner moral forces alone. Thus, nature is veiled from them, so to speak, because they would have desecrated it by giving free rein to their instincts in the new era. And their instincts have been given free rein most since the 14th and 15th centuries. That is why the old wisdom is fading away, leaving only a bookish wisdom that is not understood. For no one today would be deterred, if they really understood such things as the sentence I have read to you, from using these things to their own advantage. But that would bring out the worst instincts in human society, worse instincts than those produced by the tentative progress of what we now call scientific enterprises, where, in the laboratory, without being able to see into things, one finds out: this substance affects the other in this way — where, without looking into things, one finds out something — well, as is now the content of chemistry. One continues to maneuver in this way. And spiritual science will first have to find its way back into the secrets of nature. But at the same time, it will have to establish a social order that is completely different from today's social order, so that human beings can recognize what holds nature together at its core without being tempted into a struggle of the wildest instincts.

There is meaning and wisdom in human development, and I have already sought to prove this to you through a whole series of lectures. What happens in history happens — even if often through forces that are as destructive as possible — in such a way that a meaning runs through historical development, even if it is often not the meaning that human beings dream of, and even if human beings have to suffer greatly through the paths that the meaning of history often takes. Through everything that happens in the course of time — and it certainly happens that the pendulum sometimes swings toward evil, sometimes toward less evil — certain states of equilibrium are nevertheless achieved through this swinging. And so, until the 14th and 15th centuries, at least some people were aware of a certain sum of natural forces, knowledge of which has been lost because people in more recent times would not have the right attitude toward it.

See how beautifully this is described in the symbol that expresses the force of nature in the Egyptian legend of Isis. This image of Isis, what a moving impression it makes on us when we imagine it standing there in stone, but — at the same time, in stone, the veil from top to bottom: the veiled image at Sais. And the inscription bears it: I am the past, the present, and the future; no mortal has yet lifted my veil. This, in turn, has led to an extremely clever explanation — although very clever people have accepted this clever explanation, it must be said — to a very clever explanation. It is said that Isis thus expresses the symbol of wisdom that can never be attained by man. Behind this veil is a being that must remain hidden forever, for the veil cannot be lifted. And yet the inscription reads: I am the past, the present, and the future; no mortal has yet lifted my veil. All the clever people who say that one cannot fathom the essence are saying logically about the same thing as someone who says: My name is Müller, you will never know my name. It is exactly the same as what you always hear people say about this image, as if someone were saying: My name is Müller, you will never know my name. If one interprets this: “I am the past, the present, and the future; no mortal has yet lifted my veil” — then, of course, this interpretation is complete nonsense. For it says there what Isis is: the past, the present, and the future — the passing of time! We will talk about these things in more detail tomorrow. It is the passing of time. But something quite different from what this so-called witty explanation intends is expressed in the words: No mortal has yet lifted my veil. What is expressed is that one must approach this wisdom as one would those women who had taken the veil, whose virginity had to remain intact: with reverence, with a mindset that excludes all selfish impulses. That is what is meant. This wisdom of earlier times is like a veiled nun. The language of this veil points to the attitude.

And so it was that in the times when ancient wisdom was alive, people approached this wisdom in the appropriate manner, or were not allowed to approach it at all if they did not approach it in the appropriate manner. But in more recent times, people had to be left to their own devices. They could not have this wisdom of ancient times, the forms of wisdom of ancient times. Knowledge of certain forces of nature was lost, those forces of nature that cannot be recognized without experiencing them inwardly, without living them inwardly at the same time. And in the age in which, as I explained to you eight days ago, materialism reached a certain peak, in the 19th century, a natural force arose that is characterized in its particular nature by the fact that everyone today says: We have this natural force, but we cannot understand it; it is hidden from science. You know how the natural force of electricity came into human use; and electrical power is such that human beings cannot experience it through their normal inner powers, that it remains outside. And more than one might think, what became great in the 19th century became great through electricity. It would be easy to show how much, how infinitely much depends on electrical power in our present culture, how much more will depend on it in the future, when electrical power will be used in the modern way, without going into the inner self. Much more than that! But it is precisely electrical power that has replaced the old, familiar power in human cultural development, and through which human beings are to mature in moral terms. Today, when using it, they do not think of any morality. Wisdom lies in the ongoing historical development of humanity. Human beings will mature by developing even deeper damage for a time — damage, as our days show, is already sufficient — by developing even deeper damage in their lower ego, their wild egoism. If human beings still had the old forces, this would be completely impossible. It is precisely electrical power as a cultural force that makes this possible; steam power also does so in a certain way, but there it is even less the case.

Now the situation is such that, as I explained to you earlier, the first seventh of our cultural period, which will last until the fourth millennium, is over. Materialism has reached a certain peak; the social forms in which we live, which have led to such sad events in our time, are such that they will not sustain humanity for another fifty years without a fundamental change in the human soul. For those who understand world development spiritually, the electrical age is at the same time a call to seek spiritual deepening, real spiritual deepening. For that power, which remains unknown to sensory observation, must be joined by spiritual power in the souls, which lies hidden in the deepest innermost part, just like the electrical forces, which must also first be awakened. Think how mysterious electrical power is; it was only brought out of its secret hiddenness by Galvani and Volta. Just as secretly hidden is that which resides in human souls and which spiritual science explores. Both must come together like the north and south poles. And just as truly as the electrical force has been drawn up as the force hidden in nature, so truly will the force sought in spiritual science be drawn up as the force hidden in the soul that belongs to it; even if today many people still stand before what spiritual science wants, as one would have stood in the time when Galvani and Volta had just prepared the frogs and noticed from the twitching of the leg that a force was at work in this twitching frog's leg. Did science know then that everything about contact electricity, everything that is known about electricity today, lay in this frog's leg? Imagine yourself back in the time when Galvani was in his simple laboratory, hanging his frog's leg out of the window hook, and it began to twitch, and he noticed this for the first time! It is not electricity that is excited, but contact electricity. When Galvani first observed this, could he have imagined that the force with which the frog's leg is attracted would one day be used to transport trains across the earth, to send thoughts circling around the globe? It was not so long ago that Galvani observed this force in his frog legs. Anyone who had predicted at that time what would come of this discovery would certainly have been considered a fool. And so it came to pass that today those who are the first to present the beginnings of a spiritual science are considered fools. A time will come when what emanates from spiritual science will be just as significant for the world – but now the moral, spiritual-soul world – as what emanated from Galvani's frog's legs was for the material world, for material culture. This is how progress in human development takes place. Only when one pays attention to such things does one develop the will to go along with what may only be in its infancy. If the other force, the electrical force that has been drawn out of its hiddenness, has only an external material cultural significance and only an indirect significance for the moral world, then what comes from spiritual science will have the greatest social significance. For the social orders of the future will be regulated by what spiritual science can give to human beings. And everything that will be external material culture will also be indirectly inspired by this spiritual science. I can only point this out today in conclusion.

Tomorrow, we want to expand the image of Faust that we have seen today, who is still half in the old era and half in the new era, as I have told you today, into a kind of worldview.